Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba

This landscape contains 171 historical coffee plantations scattered across seven locations in the southeastern mountains, featuring processing buildings and residential structures. The sites show how people organized coffee cultivation in difficult terrain, with drying surfaces, storage areas, and houses forming an integrated working system.

French colonists fleeing Haiti established these plantations in the early 1800s, bringing their coffee cultivation knowledge to the region. These sites document the beginning of coffee production in Cuba and mark when the landscape began its transformation.

The layout of each plantation reveals how French settlers adapted their way of life to mountain conditions while enforcing sharp divisions between owners and workers. The spatial organization tells the story of daily routines that people followed across these sites.

La Isabelica is the most accessible plantation for visitors and offers insights into coffee processing and the region's social history. Sturdy footwear is advisable since the mountain landscape is uneven and paths are not always paved.

Secaderos, or drying surfaces, show the traditional sun-drying method that was essential for coffee processing at these sites. These structures remain visible today and help reveal how daily work routines actually functioned.