Museums
Guadeloupe is home to a diverse range of museums that reflect the archipelago's complex history, its Creole identity, and its natural riches. From archaeological sites to spaces dedicated to the memory of slavery, as well as agricultural and ethnographic museums, these institutions highlight economic, social, artistic, and human evolution. The exhibitions, often educational, are run by teams of experts, curators, and enthusiasts. The collections include pre-Columbian artifacts, everyday objects from the lives of former inhabitants, rare documents, audiovisual installations, and testimonials on local agricultural production.
Pre-Columbian roots and rural life
The Edgar Clerc Museum, located in Moule, houses numerous archaeological artifacts from a site excavated in the 1970s. It displays more than 2,000 objects attesting to the presence of Native Americans, such as ceramics, stone tools, jewelry, and ritual ornaments. Analysis of these remains has made it possible to establish a chronology of pre-Columbian civilizations in Guadeloupe. Guided tours, lasting approximately 1.5 hours, offer a histori…
…cal and anthropological interpretation of the initial settlement of the archipelago.
The Guadeloupe Ecomuseum, housed in a former distillery, highlights rural life, artisanal skills, agricultural techniques, and sugar processing. Models, period photographs, agricultural tools, mills, and old machines illustrate the daily life of farmers, their difficult adaptation to climatic conditions, and the importance of sugar cane. The museum has a library containing more than 500 books on the economic and social history of the West Indies.
The memory of slavery and colonialism
The Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre is a Caribbean center dedicated to the expression and memory of the slave trade and slavery, which opened in 2015. This site, covering more than 7,000 m², features an interactive museum tour, multimedia displays, sound installations, archival documents, and contemporary artworks. With more than 100,000 visitors annually since its early years, the Mémorial ACTe is a central element of cultural tourism. It also houses a research center and a conference room. Visitors learn about the scale of the slave trade, transatlantic voyages, slave resistance, abolition, and the contemporary repercussions of the colonial past.
The Schoelcher Museum, located in a 19th-century building in Pointe-à-Pitre, is dedicated to Victor Schoelcher, the politician who worked to abolish slavery in 1848. The museum displays original documents, correspondence, engravings, maps, and objects commemorating the abolition. The exhibition area, covering approximately 300 m², features explanatory panels and a simple layout. This place encourages reflection on human rights and the struggle for equality.
Agricultural and gastronomic products
Guadeloupe is renowned for its tropical crops, and museums dedicated to local products reveal the economic importance of these industries. The Maison de la Banane (Banana House) in Basse-Terre presents the various varieties of bananas, their production cycle, the diseases that affect them, and export methods. On site, an experimental orchard, a small museum space, informative panels (in French and English), and fresh banana tastings allow visitors to immerse themselves in agronomy. The site attracts around 20,000 visitors per year.
The Maison du Cacao in Pointe-Noire promotes cocoa cultivation. Visitors can learn about the process of transforming cocoa beans (roasting, crushing, fermentation) and the subtle art of chocolate making. A cocoa tree garden, a tasting workshop, and explanations about the unique characteristics of different terroirs allow visitors to appreciate the scale of the work carried out by small local producers. The museum regularly offers educational workshops for children, welcoming up to 50 participants per session.
The Maison du Crabe, not far from Morne-À-l’Eau, focuses on the species Cardisoma guanhumi, the land crab typical of wetlands. Panels, photographs, aquariums, and models showcase the crustacean's lifestyle, its place in the ecosystem, regulations governing its fishing and consumption, and the culinary importance of crab meat in local cuisine. The museum, which is modest in size (approximately 150 m²), promotes an ecological and responsible approach.
In Capesterre, the Maison de Kassaverie explains how kassav, the iconic cassava cake, is made. Visitors follow the journey of the tuber, from harvesting to grating, from cooking on a hot plate to the final product. The tasting, included in the ticket price, allows visitors to sample different kassavs (plain, coconut, guava). The site attracts school groups curious to understand the transformation of cassava, an ancestral crop of the Amerindians.
Museum distilleries and sugar traditions
The Rum Museum, associated with the Reimonenq Distillery in Sainte-Rose, displays antique stills, rare labels, century-old bottles, and panels on sugar cane, fermentation, and distillation. Over 300 m² of exhibition space, visitors can also discover a collection of tropical insects (more than 400 species) and antique Creole furniture. The visit concludes with a tasting of white, amber, and aged rums.
Literature, arts, and Creole identity
The Saint-John Perse Museum, housed in a Creole house in Pointe-à-Pitre, pays tribute to the poet Alexis Léger, known as Saint-John Perse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1960). Manuscripts, letters, photographs, original editions, and period portraits are displayed in a museum exhibition spread over two floors. A reading room offers works for consultation. The museum welcomes around 10,000 visitors annually and hosts literary conferences.
The Center for Arts and Culture, also located in Pointe-à-Pitre, is not a museum per se, but rather a multipurpose space covering more than 1,000 m² dedicated to temporary exhibitions, concerts, plays, and artist residencies. A central hub of the cultural scene, it regularly hosts exhibitions on Caribbean painting, contemporary sculpture, and social photography. Visitors can discover local and international artists, as well as performances related to current events in the global art world.
Discovering Guadeloupean homes and daily life
The eco-museums of Marie-Galante, such as the Ecomusée de Marie-Galante, trace the island life of an island once dedicated to sugar cane, with models of mills, agricultural tools, and maps showing the evolution of the landscape. They highlight traditional housing, Creole architecture, the materials used (wood, sheet metal, straw), the structure of the huts, and the role of the family. In several rooms, photographs, audio recordings, and oral testimonies recount the hard work of agricultural workers, the flourishing period of rum, and then the slow decline of sugar refineries. The educational approach aims to raise awareness of the island's economic changes.
Contemporary artistic expressions
The Kreol West Indies facility, located in Grande-Terre, is a space that showcases contemporary artisans, creators, and designers. It features basketry, pottery, jewelry made from local materials, abstract paintings inspired by the sea, and decorative objects drawn from Creole culture. Hands-on workshops (weaving, ceramics) allow visitors, in small groups of 5 to 10 people, to learn a new skill. The aim is to showcase a vibrant, inventive Guadeloupe that combines heritage and modernity.
Access, opening hours, and practical advice
Most museums are concentrated in Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre, accessible by car or public transportation. The Mémorial ACTe and the Musée Saint-John Perse, for example, are located in Pointe-à-Pitre, near the cruise port. Opening hours vary, generally from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, with some opening on Sundays. During the tourist season (December-April), they adapt their offerings, providing temporary exhibitions, night tours, and free lectures. Museums communicate via their websites, social media pages, and brochures distributed at tourist offices. Discounts are often available for students and groups, and partnerships exist between museums, offering combined tickets to visit several sites in the same day.