Historic sites · Marienburg, Commewijne
The ruins of what was once Suriname's largest sugar factory, at Marienburg in Commewijne, founded as a sugar plantation in 1745 and now a memorial site connected to the history of indentured labour.
Best for history interest, day trips.
| Seller | Product | Published price | Duration | Departure | Joining | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| METS Travel & Tours | Sugar Trail Tour (from) | EUR 78 pp | full day | Not stated | Not stated | September 2026 | official |
Prices are printed exactly as the seller published them on the date shown, in the seller's currency, and are not converted. A seller with no published price shows "Not published".
Mariënburg, on the Commewijne River, began as a sugar plantation founded in 1745 by Maria de la Jaille. In 1882 the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij bought the abandoned estate and opened a central sugar factory on 23 October that year, fed by a twelve-kilometre railway, the first in Suriname, that brought cane from the surrounding plantations. To work it the NHM imported contract labourers from Java; the first arrived in Paramaribo on 9 August 1890 and were sent to Mariënburg, which is why the site sits at the centre of Suriname's Javanese history.
On 29 July 1902 a dispute over wages ended with the killing of the director, James Mavor. The next day soldiers fired on workers who refused to disperse, killing 24 and wounding 32. A monument to the uprising was unveiled in 2006 and a new version by Rahied Abdoel installed in 2022; a separate monument to 120 years of Javanese immigration was dedicated in 2010.
The factory closed in 1986. The halls and rusting machinery still stand, deteriorated but visited, and a Culinary, Craft & Art Center opened on the grounds in December 2023. There are no published opening hours; the site is usually reached on a Commewijne day trip by car or bicycle from Paramaribo.
Two of Suriname's three World Heritage sites (the country's cultural pair), a plantation district, a ruined sugar factory and a fort museum. What each one holds, which guided walks and tours are published and at what price, and where slavery and indenture are the subject rather than a footnote.
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Across the river from Paramaribo lies the old plantation belt: flat, close, and the most widely sold day trip in Suriname. What is actually there, whether to go by boat or road, what every operator charges, how to combine it with dolphins, and what nobody publishes about the crossing.
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Checked · 3 named sources
Information on this page is sourced from Wikipedia (nl), TripAdvisor, Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap.
A restored 18th-century coffee and later cocoa plantation on the Commewijne River, designated a monument in 2004 and now operating as a resort with a small district story museum and a heritage walking trail.
Corrections from owners are welcome and are treated as a source like any other: checked, dated and credited.