Caribbean World Heritage Sites: Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, St Kitts & Nevis
by Karen Rollins Jun 14, 2021
“World Heritage is the designation for places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity… World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.” – WHC website.
The Caribbean is home to 16 cultural and nine natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites spread over 14 territories. These sites speak to the history, culture, and development of the region, and its outstanding natural beauty.
Let’s visit the Caribbean’s World Heritage Sites, starting in St Kitts and Nevis at Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park.
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Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is located in the parish of St Thomas on the island of St Kitts.
On the official World Heritage Centre website, the fortress is described as “an outstanding, well-preserved example of 17th- and 18th-century military architecture in a Caribbean context. Designed by the British and built by African slave labour, the fortress is testimony to European colonial expansion, the African slave trade and the emergence of new societies in the Caribbean.”
Construction of the Brimstone Hill Fortress began in 1690. British engineers designed the fort to make the most of its coastal position on a double-peaked volcanic hill which is 230 metres high. Enslaved Africans constructed the buildings and worked on it intermittently for just over 100 years until completion.
The heart of the fortress, Fort George is also known as the Citadel, is the earliest surviving example of the ‘polygonal system’ of fortress design. The walls of the structures are predominantly made of stone hewn from the hard volcanic rock of which the hill is composed.
The fortress overlooks “panoramic vistas of forested mountains, cultivated fields, the historical township of Sandy Point, and neighbouring Dutch, English and French islands across the Caribbean Sea.”
The entire site covers approximately 15 hectares.
If you are visiting St Kitts and Nevis, the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park should definitely be on your list of places to see.
