Soufrière Estate (jointly controlled with Diamond Estate), located on the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

island of

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

, was originally established in 1713 as a estate granted to three Devaux brothers for services to King

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

of France. Later on, mineral springs were discovered and were used as restorative baths by the French soldiers. In 1784, the Baron de Laborie, the French Governor of St Lucia, sent samples of the water to Paris for testing and it is believed to be good for rheumatism and skin complaints. In the wars following the French Revolution, the baths fell into disuse and it was not until the 1930s when Andre duBoulay, the owner of Soufrière and Diamond Estates restored the baths for his private use. When his daughter Joan Devaux took over the management of the estate in 1983, she opened it up to the public seeing the tourism potential of the estate. The Diamond Botanical Gardens (also known as the St. Lucia Botanical Gardens) is a area planted within the estate and includes Diamond Falls. There is a river running through the estate called Diamond River, it is black through the volcanic mud and there are mineral deposits on the river's banks. There are also nature trails as well as a watermill constructed in 1765. It was originally built to crush sugar cane, but more recently it was used to provide hydroelectric power for Soufrière.

References

External links

* Geography of Saint Lucia 1713 establishments in the French colonial empire {{SaintLucia-geo-stub