Montserrat Villas are great places to live, on a holiday or as your dream millionaire getaway after earning millions, from maybe comedy, or whatever. Lets take a look at what is there. Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It measures approximately 16 km (10 miles) long and 11 km (7 miles) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline. Montserrat was given its name by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, after its namesake located in Catalonia. Montserrat is often referred to as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, due both to its resemblance to coastal Ireland and to the Irish descent of most of its early European settlers. The island of Montserrat is located approximately 480 km (300 miles) east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 48 km (30 miles) southwest of Antigua. It comprises only 104 km² (40 square miles) and is increasing gradually owing to volcanic deposits on the southeast coast of the island; it is 16 km (10 miles) long and 11 km (7 miles) wide, with dramatic rock faced cliffs rising 15 to 30 m (50-100 feet) above the sea and smooth bottomed sandy beaches scattered among coves on the west side of the island. Montserrat has been a quiet haven of extraordinary scenic beauty. Montserrat has two islets: Little Redonda and Virgin. The Soufrière Hills or Montserrat volcano is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the island. After a long period of dormancy it became active in 1995, and eruptions have continued up to the present. The last major eruption was in July 2003. Montserrat was populated by Arawak and Carib people when it was claimed by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage for Spain in 1493, naming the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Blessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrat, which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, in Catalonia. The island fell under English control in 1632 when a group of Irish fleeing anti-Roman Catholic sentiment in Saint Kitts and Nevis settled there. The import of slaves, common to most Caribbean islands, mainly coming from West Africa, followed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and an economy based on sugar, rum, arrowroot and Sea Island cotton was established.
In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, Montserrat was briefly captured by France. It was returned to the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Paris which ended that conflict. A failed slave uprising on 17 March 1798 led to Montserrat later becoming one of only four places in the world that celebrates St Patrick's Day as a public or bank holiday (the others being the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador). Slavery was finally abolished in Montserrat in 1834, presumably as a result of the general emancipation of slaves within the British Empire in that same year.
Falling sugar prices during the nineteenth century had an adverse effect on the island's economy and in 1869 the philanthropist Joseph Sturge of Birmingham formed the Montserrat Company to buy sugar estates that were no longer economically viable. The company planted limes starting production of the island's famous lime juice, set up a school, and sold parcels of land to the inhabitants of the island, with the result that much of Montserrat came to be owned by smallholders.[3]
From
1871 to 1958 Montserrat was administered as part of the Federal Colony of the
Leeward Islands, becoming a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation
from 1958 to 1962.
A Montserrat sunset.
A Montserrat sunset.
Montserrat's
coastline.
Montserrat's coastline.
With the completion of Beatles producer George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat in 1979, the island attracted world-famous musicians who came to record in the peace and quiet and lush tropical surroundings of Montserrat.
The last several years of the 20th century, however, brought
two events which devastated the island. In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck
Montserrat with full force, damaging over 90 percent of the structures on the
island. AIR Studios closed, and the tourist trade upon which the island depended
was nearly wiped out. Within a few years, however, the island had recovered considerably—only
to be struck again by disaster. In July 1995, Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano,
dormant throughout recorded history, rumbled to life and began an eruption which
eventually buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in more than 12 metres (39 ft)
of mud, destroyed its airport and docking facilities, and rendered the southern
half of the island uninhabitable. This forced more than half of the population
to flee the island because they lacked housing. After a period of regular eruptive
events during the late 1990s including one on June 25, 1997 in which 19 people
lost their lives, the volcano's activity in recent years has been confined mostly
to infrequent ventings of ash into the uninhabited areas in the south. However,
this ash venting does occasionally extend into the populated areas of the northern
and western parts of the island. As an example, on May 20, 2006, the lava dome
that had been slowly building collapsed, resulting in an ashfall of about an inch
(2.5 cm) in Old Towne and parts of Olveston. There were no injuries or significant
property damage.
Long referred to as "The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean"
for both its Irish heritage and its resemblance to coastal Ireland, Montserrat
today remains lush and green. A new airport, opened officially by the Princess
Royal Princess Anne in February 2005, received its first commercial flights on
July 11, 2005, and docking facilities are in place at Little Bay where a new capital
is being constructed out of reach of any further volcanic activity.
The people of Montserrat were granted full residency rights in the United Kingdom in 1998, and citizenship was granted in 2002.
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