Suriname: Marienburg

Marienburg is a historic ruin of what once was the Caribbean’s biggest sugar factory in Suriname’s Commewijne District, 25 km east of Paramaribo across the Suriname River. It is now a haunting open-air ruin. Marienburg was established in 1745 with a small sugar cane field and grew to the largest in the Guyanas. The government took over the ownership when Suriname became independent and quickly ran into the ground. Today it’s a bit of an Indian Jones feel to it, overgrown with the jungle and a rusting cathedral of boilers and turbines with vines growing through the gears .