Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 23: The Picolet, Lock of the Cap's Defence
Summary: Fort Picolet above Cap-Haïtien, with the history of the first independent settlers whom the colonial authorities marginalized, the boucaniers named for the wood fire over which they cured meat. The issue also records the erasure of the old Cathedral site.
Key Findings
- The bulletin frames Fort Picolet in the colonial defense system of Cap-Francais and links the systematization of Saint-Domingue's defenses to the Seven Years' War and military engineers sent from France.
- The issue states that Saint-Domingue produced 40 percent of world coffee near the end of the French colonial period and, by the mid-eighteenth century, accounted for two thirds of the metropole's foreign trade.
- The colonial trade described in the article was valued at three billion gold francs and mobilized 763 ships and 30,000 sailors.
- The chronicle reports delivery of works to secure Sans-Souci Palace, including 1,453 linear meters of cyclone-fence enclosure, as a step toward improved site control and sustainable tourism management.
- Technical consultations in Jacmel covered the Old Prison, Maison Douge, BNC residence, tax office residence, customs iron halls, city hall, and the municipal market, all linked to preservation or restoration after the 12 January 2010 earthquake.
- The UNESCO donors' conference preparation identified about fifteen projects over five domains for the next three years, with priority zones including Leogane, Jacmel historic center, and Port-au-Prince historic center.
Full Description
Fort Picolet above Cap-Haïtien, with the history of the first independent settlers whom the colonial authorities marginalized, the boucaniers named for the wood fire over which they cured meat. The issue also records the erasure of the old Cathedral site. 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), 2011, Bulletin of the ISPAN, No. 23: The Picolet, Lock of the Cap's Defence, https://www.haiti.org/