Visiting the Roças of Príncipe island

Overview

Visiting Príncipe Island is inseparable from immersion in roça history. These former colonial plantations are not merely architectural structures—they represent the deepest reflection of the archipelago's memory and identity. Today, roças function variously as luxury hotels, organic farms, community centers, and romantic ruins reclaimed by jungle, offering visitors tangible connections to the island's complex past.

Understanding the Roça System

The term "roça" derives from Portuguese, meaning "clearing bush" or "opening clearings." Roças became the economic and social foundation of Príncipe and São Tomé for centuries, shaping settlement patterns, cultural identity, and the landscape visitors encounter today.

Historical Structure

Roças flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during coffee and cocoa cycles. They functioned as self-sufficient agro-industrial units whose productive system relied on enslaved and contract labor. A typical roça included the Casa Grande (administrator's mansion), worker residences (sanzalas), and essential infrastructure including hospitals, schools, churches, and processing facilities. These comprehensive plantation complexes were essentially autonomous worlds where hundreds or thousands of people lived, worked, and died without leaving plantation boundaries.

Following independence in 1975, most roças were abandoned or collapsed economically, transforming into communities or villages. Today, remaining structures—many in picturesque ruins—constitute important cultural and architectural heritage of the Lusophone world that authorities seek to safeguard. Some Príncipe roças, including Sundy and Belo Monte, have been listed by authorities for recognition as UNESCO World Heritage sites due to their authenticity and historical significance.

Major Roças: What to Visit

Though Príncipe's roças are smaller than São Tomé's massive plantations, they concentrate in the island's northern half and now serve as ecotourism pillars. Each roça offers distinct experiences ranging from luxury accommodation to historical exploration.

Roça Sundy

Status: Active (hospitality, cocoa production, services)

Príncipe's largest plantation has been transformed into a luxury boutique hotel (Roça Sundy - Príncipe Collection) while maintaining functioning cocoa cultivation and an artisanal chocolate factory. The property uniquely combines historical preservation with contemporary luxury hospitality.

Why Visit: This is an essential stop for any Príncipe visitor. Beyond accommodation, the roça offers the Museu do Ferro Velho (Old Iron Museum) displaying colonial-era machinery and the Casa do Cacau (Cocoa House) demonstrating traditional cocoa processing. Most significantly, Roça Sundy is where British astronomer Arthur Eddington confirmed Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity during the 1919 solar eclipse, making it a site of global scientific importance. The property offers the Rota do Cacau (Cocoa Route) tour with plantation visits, chocolate factory demonstrations, and tastings.

Practical Information: Non-guests can arrange visits through hotel reception. The property exemplifies how plantation heritage can support sustainable tourism while maintaining agricultural traditions.

Roça Belo Monte

Status: Active (hospitality and services)

This former coffee and cocoa plantation is considered the best-preserved roça on the entire island. Converted into a boutique hotel, Belo Monte showcases spectacular colonial architecture meticulously restored to contemporary luxury standards while respecting historical character.

Why Visit: Even non-guests are welcome to visit, appreciate the remarkable colonial architecture, and explore the Forever Príncipe Museum installed in the plantation buildings. This museum provides comprehensive context on island culture, natural environment, and plantation history, making it essential for understanding Príncipe's complex heritage. The property features an outdoor pool with panoramic views and maintains extensive gardens demonstrating traditional and contemporary horticulture.

Practical Information: Contact hotel reception to arrange visits. The museum offers the most comprehensive introduction to island history and ecology available to visitors.

Roça Porto Real

Status: Limited function/community use

Porto Real once possessed an extensive railway network (30 km in 1910) connecting plantation areas to coastal shipping points. Today, imposing colonial buildings including the former hospital stand abandoned in ruins, "devoured by vegetation" in spectacular fashion. Despite physical decay, the roça remains a site of community life and interaction, hosting religious services and celebrations. A glass jewelry workshop operates on the property, transforming recycled glass into artisanal jewelry.

Why Visit: This site offers compelling historical and architectural interest where visitors can explore hospital ruins and visit the jewelry factory. The combination of romantic decay and continued community use provides insight into how plantation heritage adapts to contemporary needs. Proposals exist to create a Museum of Industrial Archaeology here, which would document the railway systems and industrial infrastructure that once defined plantation operations.

Practical Information: Accessible by 4x4 or guided tour. Respect ongoing community use when visiting.

Roça Terreiro Velho

Status: Active (agriculture/cocoa production)

Associated with renowned chocolate producer Claudio Corallo, Terreiro Velho maintains cocoa plantations and processing operations. The main house appears abandoned from exterior views, but cocoa drying activity continues in traditional fashion, with beans spread on large drying platforms under the sun.

Why Visit: This roça is fundamental to recent cocoa revival history and offers wonderful coastal views justifying the visit regardless of cocoa interest. Visitors can observe traditional cocoa processing methods that have changed little since colonial times. The property demonstrates how small-scale, quality-focused cocoa production can sustain operations where industrial-scale cultivation failed.

Practical Information: Viewing typically from exterior areas; confirm access arrangements for interior visits or cocoa processing observation.

Roça Paciência

Status: Active (agroforestry/organic production)

Originally a satellite plantation to Roça Sundy, Paciência now functions as an organic agricultural center for HBD operations. The property produces creams, soaps, and organic products for Príncipe Collection hotels, demonstrating how plantation infrastructure can support contemporary sustainable agriculture.

Why Visit: This "industrious refuge" of organic agriculture welcomes visitors to explore plantations and learn about organic production methods adapted to tropical conditions. The farm-to-hotel concept provides tangible examples of sustainable tourism's local economic benefits. Products are available for purchase, offering authentic souvenirs that support local production.

Practical Information: Visits can be arranged through Príncipe Collection hotels or directly with the property. Best combined with beach visits to nearby Macaco and Boi beaches.

Roça Infante D. Henrique

Status: Inactive/abandoned

Príncipe's southernmost roça was deserted in the 1980s and has become a "lost paradise" where forest has assumed complete control of former buildings. The ruins offer dramatic examples of nature reclaiming human infrastructure, with trees growing through walls and roofs collapsed under vegetation weight.

Why Visit: This site offers excellent hiking opportunities where visitors can witness buildings overtaken by nature in spectacular fashion. The abandoned roça provides insight into what happens when human intervention ceases in tropical environments—rapid, complete absorption by forest that erases evidence of decades of intensive cultivation within years. The romanticism of these ruins appeals to photographers and those interested in environmental succession.

Practical Information: Accessible only on foot via established hiking trails. Local guide essential for navigation and safety. The trail to Infante D. Henrique passes through dense forest and requires reasonable fitness levels.

Visiting Roças: Practical Advice

Most roças welcome visitors, though protocols vary. Converted hotels (Sundy, Belo Monte, Bom Bom) have reception desks where non-guests can inquire about visits, tours, and dining options. Abandoned or community-use roças require more informal arrangements, typically through local guides who can negotiate access and provide historical context.

Respect that many roças remain sites of community life where people live and work. Ask permission before photographing residents, avoid disturbing ongoing activities, and recognize that romantic ruins represent economic collapse that caused genuine hardship for workers whose livelihoods disappeared.

The roça system's legacy is complex—these sites embody both remarkable architectural achievement and brutal exploitation, beautiful landscapes created through forced labor, cultural mixing born from oppression. Visitors should approach roças with historical awareness that honors this complexity rather than romanticizing plantation aesthetics divorced from their human cost.