Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 7: Fort Jacques, Haiti's Most Visited Historic Monument
Summary: Fort Jacques at Fermathe and its rotunda, set in the fortification program General Alexandre Pétion carried out in the Western military department from the day after independence was proclaimed.
Key Findings
- The bulletin presents Fort Jacques and Fort Alexandre as part of the post-independence fortification system ordered by Dessalines to protect Haiti against a possible French return.
- The article states that about thirty military works, from simple redoubts to full fortresses, were built in this period to control communications, mountain passes and refuge points.
- Fort Jacques and Fort Alexandre, placed at about 1,300 m altitude, controlled the Cul-de-Sac plain, Croix-des-Bouquets, Fond-Parisien, Coupe-Charbonniere, Gonave, Arcahaie and the Matheux range.
- Fort Alexandre is described as a square fort with four corner bastions, while Fort Jacques has an irregular plan adapted to the mountain summit and a circular north-west bastion that identifies the work.
- The bulletin reports 2,592 regular subscribers by its seventh issue and says ISPAN was seeking patrons to cover research, writing, photography, layout, distribution and follow-up costs.
- The chronicle says BRH financed site cleaning and visitor improvements at Fort Jacques before the 33rd biannual meeting of CARICOM central bank governors on 31 October 2009.
Full Description
Fort Jacques at Fermathe and its rotunda, set in the fortification program General Alexandre Pétion carried out in the Western military department from the day after independence was proclaimed. One issue of the Bulletin de l'ISPAN, the monthly bulletin of Haiti's Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National, which ran from June 2009 to at least November 2011 and documented one monument, site or historic center per issue.
How to cite
Institute for the Protection of National Heritage (ISPAN), 2009, Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 7: Fort Jacques, Haiti's Most Visited Historic Monument, https://www.haiti.org/