Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park
Hilltop British fortress built by enslaved Africans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a museum.
Brimstone Hill rises about 230 metres from the leeward coast of Saint Kitts, its slopes formed of volcanic rock and limestone. British forces first mounted cannon here in 1690 to dislodge the French from Fort Charles below, and over the following century the position grew into a walled fortress of bastions, barracks, magazines and water cisterns. British military engineers set out the works; the cutting, hauling and building were done by enslaved Africans, whose labour the national park's own interpretation places at the centre of the site's history.
At the summit stands the Fort George Citadel, among the earliest surviving polygonal forts in the Americas, which now houses the site museum. A French force took the fortress after a siege of about a month in 1782; it was returned to Britain the following year. The garrison finally withdrew in 1852 and the buildings decayed until conservation began in the twentieth century. The site became a national park in 1965 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.
Highlights
- Fort George Citadel, an early polygonal fort, now holding the site museum
- Built and maintained over a century by enslaved African labourers
- Scene of a month-long French siege in 1782 and returned to Britain in 1783
- UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, with views to neighbouring islands
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![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
