Longwood House

Longwood House is set in the interior of the island at an altitude of about 430 metres, surrounded by rolling pastures and the island's nine-hole golf course. The house itself is a two-storey Georgian structure, white-plastered with a slate roof, approached by a long drive from the main road. It was built originally as a country residence for the governor of Saint Helena and was commandeered by the British government as Napoleon Bonaparte's place of exile after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

Napoleon lived here for just under six years, until his death on 5 May 1821, and the house has been preserved as a museum that documents his exile in considerable detail. The rooms have been restored to their appearance during his residence, with particular care taken over the study where he dictated his memoirs, the drawing room where he received visitors, and the small bedroom where he died. The furniture is mostly original or period-appropriate, and the displays include his death mask, personal effects, and an extensive collection of contemporary documents and portraits.

The conditions of his exile were spartan by the standards of a man who had ruled most of Europe, and Napoleon chafed against the restrictions placed on his movement and correspondence. He was permitted to walk within a defined area but was watched constantly by British guards who lived in a cottage nearby and kept a log of his activities. The gardens were planted with European species by his personal gardener, and a greenhouse was built to grow the vegetables and fruits he missed from French cuisine.

After his death, the house passed back to private use and was a hotel for a period in the twentieth century before being acquired by the French government in 1858, which maintains it to this day as a French territory. The tomb that was originally dug for his remains in the valley below the house can still be visited; his body was eventually returned to France in 1840 and now rests at Les Invalides in Paris.

The surrounding golf course is a legacy of the period after Napoleon's death when the house was used for other purposes; it was laid out across the pastures that had been Napoleon's walking area and is notable for its setting, with sweeping views from nearly every hole across the island's interior and out to the Atlantic. Playing a round here is one of the more unusual golfing experiences in the world, combining a sporting challenge with direct proximity to one of history's most famous exile sites.

It is the best-documented Napoleonic site outside France, with extensive original fabric and a museum collection that is continuously curated by the French Republic.

The story of Napoleon's exile is one of the most poignant episodes in the history of the British Empire's use of remote islands as prisons, and the house makes that history tangible.

The setting in the green interior of the island, far from the sea and from Jamestown, is unexpectedly beautiful and gives a sense of the isolation that defined Napoleon's last years.