Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The fortress walls were cut from the hill's own hard volcanic rock, and the mortar binding them was burned on site from limestone on its slopes.
- Brimstone Hill is a plug of volcanic rock that forced its way up through layers of limestone, which still covers much of its middle and lower slopes.
- The hill is said to owe its name to the smell of sulphur drifting from nearby volcanic vents.
- Its Citadel is one of the earliest and finest surviving examples of the polygonal system, a then-new style of fortification design.
- Building went on intermittently for just over a century, from the 1690s to the 1790s.
- Lightning struck the fortress's gunpowder magazine twice in its early decades, destroying it in 1711 and again in 1731.
- By 1736 the hilltop already bristled with 49 guns, decades before the great siege of 1782.
- During the 1782 siege the French brought over guns captured from the forts of neighbouring Nevis and turned them against the fortress.
- From 1795 a unit of 40 enslaved men, the St. Christopher Corps of Embodied Slaves, served in the garrison armed with pikes and cutlasses.
Why it is worth it
Brimstone Hill rises almost 300 metres straight up from the Caribbean shore of St Kitts, and the fortress that crowns it earned the name "Gibraltar of the Caribbean". British military engineers designed it; enslaved Africans built and maintained it. Today it is one of the best preserved historic fortifications in the Americas and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, valued as a monument both to European colonial rivalry and to the labour of the people who raised it.
The hill's military career began in 1689, when the French hauled cannon up it to bombard the English Fort Charles below; a year later the English used the same trick to take it back, and from then on they fortified the summit. The great test came in January 1782, when a French force under the Comte de Grasse and the Marquis de Bouillé besieged the fortress for a month until the outnumbered garrison surrendered. The Treaty of Paris returned the island to Britain a year later, and the fortifications were strengthened so thoroughly that Brimstone Hill never fell again. The garrison left in 1853, and the stones were slowly reclaimed by vegetation.
Restoration began in the early twentieth century and continues. Visitors climb ramps and steps from the parking area to the Fort George Citadel, which contains a museum, and to the Western and Eastern Places of Arms; nearby are the Magazine Bastion breached by the French in 1782, the Prince of Wales Bastion, the Orillon Bastion and the ruined officers' quarters. From the ramparts, the neighbouring island of Sint Eustatius appears across the sea.
Getting there
The fortress stands on the west coast of St Kitts, about 13 km from the capital, Basseterre. Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport (SKB) is about 13 km away. From the parking area, the citadel is reached by a steep walk up ramps and steps.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a well-preserved fortress on a hill on the island of St. Kitts, in the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean. It was designed by British military engineers, and was built and maintained by enslaved Africans. It is one of the best preserved historical fortifications in the Americas.
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