t Antique mahogany furniture in the interior rooms of the abbey
t Antique mahogany furniture in the interior rooms of the abbey
Experience Barbados
The Caribbean’s most easterly landmass was first colonized by the English in 1627. It soon became one of the region’s most important islands for sugar cane cultivation, with the labor carried out on plantation estates by slaves brought over from West Africa. Following emancipation in 1834, many workers lived in moveable, timber chattel houses, which are still common sights today. The Garrison area was the Caribbean’s largest British military establishment in colonial times, and is now on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
After more than 300 years as a colony, Barbados gained its independence in 1966. However, it retains some English characteristics, with cricket played on village greens and Anglican churches everywhere. The island has many of its own cultural features though, from road tennis to local dishes such as pudding and souse (pickled pork mixed with steamed sweet potato). The big annual event is Crop Over, a colorful carnival that runs from June through August and dates back to celebrations marking the end of the sugar cane harvest.
The island divides into distinctive parts. Bridgetown, in the southwest, is Barbados’s busy, commerce-driven capital. The west coast is lined with luxury hotels and villas and centered on Holetown, where the English settlers first landed. Down on the south coast it’s more developed and livelier, while the unspoiled, wave-pummelled east coast couldn’t be more different – the beauty spot of Bathsheba is a magnet for serious surfers. The rural interior is dotted with historic plantation houses, and areas are still covered by swathes of sugar cane.