Roça Sundi, Príncipe

Roça Sundi is the biggest roça in Principe, Sao Tome and Principe.

(Sometimes I saw some map marked as “Sundy”)

When we went from Sao Tome city to Santo Antonio by plane,
→more information in my page of Santo Antonio:
http://vintagejhan.blogspot.tw/2014/02/santo-antonio-principe.html

We also could see the Bom Bom Island,
it was not far away for each other.
→more information in my page of Bom Bom Island:
http://vintagejhan.blogspot.tw/2013/03/bom-bom-island-resort.html

It was easy to see this roça from our plane,

especially the orderly rank of roça building.

Sundi is at northwestern of Principe Island,

It is no more than 10 km from the capital Santo Antonio.

However, we took more than one hour from Santo Antonio to Sundi,

the road (actually it was a track) condition was bed.

The road through the forest. (Floresta de Azeitona)

Only the some part of road I took pictures when the condition was better.

When we approached near Roça Sundi, the coconut trees substituted the forest,

the view was not covered by the nature green at all.

And we can see some building around the road,

Such as this tower, I guessed this was for military function.

But the locals told me it was just a water storage tower.

Into the Roça Sundi, there were many Portuguese colonial buildings.

Roça is a Portuguese word, and is a colonial unit in Portuguese colonies.

it was the important agriculture (building) system in Portugal Era in São Tomé e Príncipe.

It was commonly to seem in Sao Toem and Principe.

There were the big farm, the slaves and the rulers.

Agriculture was the core of Roça, and they got the profit from cocoa, coffee beans or palm etc.

Sometimes the agriculture produces would process in basic factory.

Maybe we can think the Roça system was the military governors in colonial times.

They had almost independent finance and government of a big system by several Roças.

There was a main headquarter Roça, and several small Roças belonged the big system.

The big system usually contained some Roças near the nature material source,

such as the giant farm or forest.

In addition, it was also a Roça by the coast, exporting the resources was their main function.

And the main headquarter Roça was usually at middle of them, to manage these Roças.

For example, Roça Sundi was the main headquarter Roça in these area, and there was a Roça : Praia Sundi, for exporting the resources.

We can find some railways linked each other in 1960s map.

Obviously, we could find some railways in Roça Sundi,

but they were no function anymore.

abandoned railway to Roça Sundi

abandoned railway with local house

The 
It is clear to find the Sundi Logo "S with triangle" on the abandoned hospital


the abandoned hospital inside

More photos in Roça Sundi 2, Príncipe
http://vintagejhan.blogspot.tw/2016/10/roca-sundi-2-principe.html

Key Words: Roça, Ruins, abandoned railway, hospital, STP
Palavras-chave: Roça, Ruínas, ferrovia abandonada, hospital, STP