A Pilgrimage into the Heart of São Tomé’s Lost World.
Born of ambition and family pride, Roça São Miguel was Jacinto Carneiro de Sousa e Almeida’s answer to fate’s betrayals. After the death of his father — the first Baron of Água-Izé — in 1869, Jacinto managed the legendary Água-Izé plantation. Yet history would not favor him: deep in debt, Água-Izé was seized by the Banco Nacional Ultramarino and, by 1898, sold to Francisco Mantero’s Companhia da Ilha do Príncipe. Mantero, incidentally, was also an administrator at the same bank — a detail not lost on Jacinto.
Facing the slow unraveling of his inheritance, Jacinto set his sights elsewhere. In 1883, he ventured deep into the island’s wild southern territories, to a land long regarded as the refuge of fugitive slaves — a dense, untamed region called Terrenos de São Miguel. Here, he laid the foundations of Roça São Miguel, pushing further south until, in 1890, he also founded Roça Porto Alegre, uniting his southern holdings under a single grand vision.
The terreiro (main square) of Roça São Miguel was built at an elevated point overlooking the spectacular São Miguel bay, facing the tiny islets of Gabado and São Miguel — a view that, even now, feels otherworldly. But nature would have the last word. Abandoned for decades and completely reclaimed by the jungle, São Miguel is today one of the most remote and mystical sites on the island of São Tomé.
While no road has ever been built to this hidden enclave, it remains accessible to those willing to make the effort: either by boat across São Tomé’s rugged southern coast, or by a demanding, daylong trek through the untouched wilderness of Parque Natural Ôbo.
But destiny had its final say. Jacinto died in 1905 in Lisbon, after being manipulated — as his family claimed — into signing away his life's work to Henry Burnay’s firm. Roça São Miguel passed into the hands of the Companhia Agrícola de S. Thomé, partly owned by Burnay’s powerful banking empire.
Today, little remains of Roça São Miguel’s infrastructure — only the Chapel of Saint Michael, standing proud and weathered, and the stone statue of the saint himself, still watching over the land. The rest has surrendered to time and nature. Since 2006, the area has been part of the protected Parque Natural Ôbo de São Tomé, a sacred place where nature and legend intertwine.
Getting There
Reaching São Miguel is an adventure reserved for the truly determined. There’s no road. Your options? A full day’s hike through jungle from Porto Alegre, passing the haunting ruins of Roça Santo António de Mussakavú, or a daring boat journey skimming the wild southern coastline.
Locals still make pilgrimages here — seeking good health, luck in love, or protection from unseen enemies. São Miguel is a place of whispered prayers and lingering mysteries.
Continuing the Journey
From São Miguel, you can either continue north, trekking through dense forest to Juliana de Sousa and eventually Santa Catarina, where the roads begin again. Alternatively, hire a canoe back to Porto Alegre — or retrace your steps through the wild heart of the island.
Few locals have completed the journey between Porto Alegre and Santa Catarina. Those who do often speak of startling encounters — ancient plantation ruins swallowed by jungle, rusting 19th-century cars quietly decaying in abandoned courtyards, vertiginous cliffs plunging into the sea, fresh palm wine from hidden vinhateiros, wild pig hunters, and breathtaking coastal views.
Some say they’ve seen the impossible. Halfway through a grueling trek, we thought we spotted a phantom — Jacinto's centuries-old carriage, impossibly intact, abandoned in the thick of the jungle. Was it exhaustion? An illusion birthed by pure oxygen and sunstroke? Maybe. Maybe not.
Old island legends tell of spectral figures — white men in gleaming clothes, riding pale horses under the midday sun. Hallucinations or something deeper? In São Tomé, where superstition runs deep, you learn not to dismiss the mysteries too easily.
Share your story. If you glimpse something strange in the jungle, you wouldn’t be the first.
Lost in Time: Jungle Ruins and Forgotten Plantations
Channel your inner Indiana Jones as you stumble upon forgotten plantations swallowed by the jungle — ancient worlds where time stands still and vines drape like curtains over crumbling walls.
Roça São Miguel isn’t just a destination; it’s a portal. It marks a mandatory crossing point for the ultimate trekking adventure on São Tomé: a pedestrian journey starting from Porto Alegre and ending in the remote Vila de Santa Catarina.
Along the way, expect to camp under the stars at São Miguel, and pass through the ghostly remains of once-grand estates — Roça Santo António de Mussakavú, Roça Juliana de Sousa, Roça Bindá, Roça Ponta Furada, and Roça Lembá.
Each roça tells its own story, whispered by the breeze through broken windows and mossy stone. It’s a journey not just across São Tomé, but across the hidden pages of its history — for those bold enough to walk them.
Google Map
Did you know
Although it belonged to Roça Porto Alegre, Roça São Miguel was founded seven years earlier than Roça Porto Alegre.
In the hidden heart of São Miguel, resistance often took the simplest — and most daring — form: escape. By the early 1900s, it was almost a rhythm of the land itself — every year, an average of eight serviçais would vanish into the dense jungle, slipping away from the confines of plantation life in search of freedom.
Mário Ferreira Lopes Duarte was the manager of Roça São Miguel in 1905, under the ownership of the Burnay Bank.
Explore
Discover the fascinating history of São Miguel. An imposing plantation estate built over a century ago, this spectacular destination was once home to the powerful Conde de Malanza clan. The Condes de Malanza of Roça São Miguel were part of a São-Toméan mestiço lineage — descendants of the Barão de Água Izé — who introduced cacao production to São Tomé.
Nearest hotels
- Praia Inhame Ecolodge, Porto Alegre
- Gombela Ecolodge and Farming, Porto Alegre
- Domus Praia Jalé, Água Côco
- N’Guembú Nature Resort: Porto Alegre
- Roça São João dos Angolares, Angolares
- Hotel Campismo Praia Grande, Monte Carmo
- 7 ventos, Alto Douro
