Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 10: Jacmel: Counting the Damage to the Historic Centre
Summary: ISPAN and the municipality of Jacmel jointly inventoried the historic center after the earthquake. The team of engineer Elsoit Colas and the institute's documentalist Constant Jean-Marie counted no fewer than 103 old buildings damaged to varying degrees.
Key Findings
- The bulletin documents earthquake damage in Jacmel and argues that the historic center retained enough architectural coherence to justify restoration rather than demolition.
- ISPAN and the municipality inventoried old buildings in the historic center on 22 and 23 February after the 12 January earthquake.
- The inventory confirmed international expert findings that Jacmel still preserved its plastic, urban and architectural coherence.
- The article warns against uncontrolled demolition and calls for immediate emergency and conservation measures for endangered historic buildings.
- It recalls that Jacmel's historic center had been on Haiti's UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 2004 under criteria 2 and 4.
- A subsequent international mission in Port-au-Prince found that historic buildings often resisted better than modern ones but were threatened by looting, illegal trafficking and uncontrolled demolition.
Full Description
ISPAN and the municipality of Jacmel jointly inventoried the historic center after the earthquake. The team of engineer Elsoit Colas and the institute's documentalist Constant Jean-Marie counted no fewer than 103 old buildings damaged to varying degrees. 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), 2010, Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 10: Jacmel: Counting the Damage to the Historic Centre, https://www.haiti.org/