Longwood House

Longwood House, set on a windswept plateau in the interior of St Helena, is the island's most famous historic site, the residence where the exiled French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte spent the last six years of his life and died in 1821, having been sent to this remote Atlantic rock after his final defeat. Carefully preserved as a museum by France, which owns the property, the house evokes his melancholy exile through its period rooms, furnishings and personal effects, including the very room in which he died. Surrounded by gardens he himself helped design, and near the empty tomb where he was first buried, Longwood offers a genuinely moving and atmospheric window onto the final chapter of one of history's most extraordinary lives.

What you actually see

• The house - the preserved rooms of Napoleon's exile.
• The death room - the very room where the Emperor died.
• The personal effects - the furnishings and belongings.
• The gardens and tomb - the grounds and the original empty tomb.

When to go

Year-round; St Helena's mild climate makes Longwood accessible in any season, though the interior plateau can be cooler and mistier than the coast. Allow time to absorb the house, its gardens and the nearby tomb fully on a reflective visit.

Honest expectations

Longwood is a modest country house whose power lies in its history and atmosphere rather than grandeur, and reaching remote St Helena at all is a considerable journey. As the evocative place of Napoleon's final exile and death, carefully preserved amid the gardens he tended, though, Longwood House is a genuinely moving and fascinating historic site.

Nearby

Jamestown, Napoleon's tomb and the green interior of St Helena lie nearby.