The savannah was once a sugar plantation until the year 1817. It is
260 acres of grass that is central to many activities like
Independence Day parade, kite flying festival and carnival. Without
doubt the most important of these activities is Carnival - an event
which has attracted nearly 600,000 nationals and foreigners to the
environs of the Savannah yearly. It is a place for many football
(soccer) games, walking around the perimeter for exercise or a
place to relax and get a cold coconut. If you are feeling like a
little exercise the perimeter is a 2.2-mile (3.5 KM) walk. The
Savannah as a whole is not landscaped except the trees around the
edges and the area of the cache called the hollows that used to be
a reservoir.
The western edge of the Savannah, along Maraval Road, is the
location of the Magnificent Seven, a group of late Victorian
buildings built in an eccentric and flamboyant variety of styles.
These are:
1) Queen's Royal College in an Italianate style with a great
tower.
2) Hayes Court, home of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of the
Anglican Church in Trinidad and Tobago, named after Bishop J.
Thomas Hayes, an Englishman who served here in the late 1800s and
early 1900s.
3) Mille Fleurs, once a private residence but now owned by the
government and the future home of the Law Association;
4) Roomor, an ornate black-and-white chateau-like building that
remains a private residence; once called the Ambard Building.
5) Residence of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Port-of-Spain.
6) White Hall, the office of the Prime Minister.
7) Stollmeyer's Castle, a turreted house supposedly modelled on
Balmoral Castle which is now being converted into subsidiary
offices for the prime minister's staff.
Hope you have fun exploring the Savannah and please help keep
T&T beautiful, CITO!
Small note on cache maintenance: There is a local
cache guardian. Name and contact info on file with
geocaching.com.