Citadelle Laferrière
The hilltop fortress of King Henri I, built at the time of his rule in 1811 as a citadel housing 10,000 soldiers.
Henri was one was one of four key generals to liberate Haiti from the French during the Haitian Revolution.
Haiti Citadelle Louis Mercier Video
The
Citadelle Laferrière or, Citadelle Henri Christophe, is a large
mountaintop fortress located in northern Haiti, approximately 17 miles
(27 km) south of the city of Cap-Haïtien and five miles (8 km) uphill
from the town of Milot.
It
is the largest fortress in the Americas and was designated by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site in 1982—along with the nearby
Sans-Souci Palace.
The massive stone structure was built by up to 20,000 workers between 1805 and 1820
as part of a system of fortifications designed to keep the
newly-independent nation of Haiti safe from French incursions. The
Citadel was built several miles inland, and atop the 3,000 ft (910 m) Bonnet a L’Eveque mountain,
to deter attacks and to provide a lookout into the nearby valleys.
Cap-Haïtien and the adjoining Atlantic Ocean are visible from the roof
of the fortress. Anecdotally, it is possible to sight the eastern coast of Cuba, some 90 miles (140 km) to the west, on clear days.
The Haitians outfitted the fortress with 365 cannon of varying size.
Enormous stockpiles of cannonballs still sit in pyramidal stacks at
the base of the fortress walls. Since its construction, the fortress has withstood numerous earthquakes, though a French attack never came.
Henri
Christophe initially commissioned the fortress in 1805. At the time,
Christophe was a general in the Haitian army and chief administrator
of the country's northern regions. In 1806, along with co-conspirator
Alexandre Pétion, Christophe launched a coup against Haiti's emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
Dessalines's death led to a power struggle between Christophe and
Pétion, which ended with Haiti divided into northern and southern
compartments, with the north under Christophe's presidency by 1807. He
declared himself king in 1811.
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The
Citadel was part of a system of fortifications that included Fort
Jacques and Fort Alexandre, built on the mountains overlooking
Port-au-Prince. Dessalines ordered those forts built in 1805 to
protect the new nation against French attacks.
In
the event of an invasion, Christophe planned to have his military
burn the valuable crops and food stocks along the coast, then retreat
to the fortress, setting ambushes along the sole mountain path leading
to the Citadel.
Christophe
suffered a stroke in 1820, and some of his troops mutinied. Shortly
afterwards, he committed suicide, according to legend, by shooting
himself with a silver bullet. Loyal followers covered his body in
quicklime and entombed it in one of the Citadel's interior courtyards
to prevent others from mutilating the corpse.
The
walls of the fortress itself rise up 130 feet (40 m) from the
mountaintop, and the entire complex, including cannonball stocks, yet
excluding the surrounding grounds, covers an area of 108,000 square feet (10,000 m2).
The large foundation stones of the fortress were laid directly into
the stone of the mountaintop and fastened using a mortar mixture which
included quicklime, molasses, and the blood of local cows and goats.
Large
cisterns and storehouses in the fortress's interior were designed to
store enough food and water for 5,000 defenders for up to one year.
The fortress included palace quarters for the king and his family, in
the event that they needed to take refuge within its walls. Other
facilities included dungeons, bathing quarters, and bakery ovens. The
Citadel's appearance from the trail leading up to its base has been
likened to the prow of a great stone ship, jutting out from the
mountainside. The structure is angular, and assumes different geometric forms based on the viewer's orientation.
Though most of the fortress has no roof as such (the interior top is a
latticework of stone walkways), some slanted portions are adorned
with bright red tiles. The fortress has been repaired and refurbished
several times since its construction, including in the 1980s with help
from UNESCO and the World Monuments Fund, though little of it has
been replaced, and its design remains the same.
Visitors
are encouraged to rent a horse for the uphill trek. The first portion
of the seven-mile (11 km) trail is navigable by 4WD vehicle. The
entire seven-mile-trail starting in Milot, almost completely uphill,
can be walked by experienced hikers who carry plenty of water. Most of
the interior of the Citadel fortress itself is accessible to
visitors, who may also climb the numerous staircases to the fortress's
roof, which is free of guardrails. On a clear day, the city of Cap
Haitien and the Atlantic Ocean can be seen to the north.
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