Article written by Mark Stevens. Photos by Sharon Matthews-Stevens.
Think swaying palms, sapphire seas and sunset dinners for two and you’ll get it.
The Caribbean is for lovers.
But those romantic settings aren’t the only reasons I love the Caribbean.
I’m a history buff.
Think colonial cities, plantation ruins, fortresses and iconic museums. Visit one – or all – of these Caribbean historic sites and you’ll be sure to agree with me.
The Caribbean is for (history) lovers.
A Heaping Helping of History (Antigua and Barbuda)
From an eighteenth-century naval dockyard to forts, from windmills to plantation ruins, Antigua and Barbuda boast a heaping helping of history.
Given my own love of history, half an hour into my first visit to Antigua and Barbuda I’m smitten.
We’re dropped off early that first morning at Nelson’s Dockyard, ready to board a sailboat I’m about to skipper for the next week. (Antigua and Barbuda are also must-dos for sailors!)
We prowl the grounds of this still-working eighteenth-century dockyard, admiring buildings boasting cedar-shake roofs and ballast brick walls, strolling a cobblestone quay once commandeered by Admiral Nelson.
The next night we attend a weekly party where drinks are served from fieldstone Royal Army barracks, where dancers strut on the cobbled parade ground.
Next we discover the ruins of two period forts, we visit Betty Hope, ruins of a sugar plantation established in 1650.
Antigua and Barbuda are known for their great beaches (a year’s worth!), but the beaches are just the beginning.
They also serve up a heaping helping of history.
The Colours of Curaçao
Boasting a fascinating and unique history, Curaçao is a must-do for history buffs.
If Curaçao’s colours were the only selling point of this island you’d still love the place, but those colours are just the beginning, though they do add to the appeal of Willemstad, the island’s capital and a designated UNESCO Heritage Site.
When an erstwhile governor arrived, he decided that the whitewashed buildings exacerbated his migraine headaches, so he decreed that they be painted different colours, creating a pastel-painted cityscape worthy of Baroque Amsterdam.
During a historical tour of Willemstad our guide points out the cannonball still lodged in the wall of Fort Amsterdam. We stop at the Maritime Museum for a lesson in indigenous culture, nautical and military history. Next stop is the Jewish Cultural Museum and the oldest synagogue in continuous usage, repositories for the fascinating story of four hundred years of Jewish history on the island.
Art-lovers and history buffs alike will love a visit to the Jan Kok Landhuis, home to the Nina Sanchez Gallery. A landhuis (they are scattered across the island) is the Dutch equivalent of an English colonial great house.
Here in Curaçao history comes alive.
In living colour!
The Castle that Wasn’t (Cayman Islands)
Despite the fun backstory Pedro St. James is one of Grand Cayman’s most important historic sites.
History lover or just love a great story, you’ll be sure to love Grand Cayman’s Pedro St. James.
Though it’s one of the island’s most important properties (it’s the oldest stone building on Grand Cayman), by the 1950’s this Great House had fallen into ruin and was purchased by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.He flattened and paved the roof, he built a crenellated wall to resemble a castle. He scattered cannon and gold doubloons across the property and billed this erstwhile hostelry as the one-time haunt of Captain Morgan.
So much for that story – Morgan never visited The Cayman Islands.
But the site is still significant – and just as cool since it was restored to its former glory, replete with period furniture and costumed interpreters. That’s fitting since this great house was the location of the island’s first legislative assembly. Emancipation was announced from its verandah in 1835.Pedro St. James is a Caymanian must-do for history lovers.
Even if Captain Morgan never did sleep here.
A Bastion of History (St. Kitts)
Visit Brimstone Hill for the great views and stay for the history.
Given the fact that St. Kitts was one of the first Caribbean islands to host Europeans, it’s hardly surprising that history abounds here.
Ride the Sugar Train and mix your history and culture with great scenery, stop at Wingfield Estate and Romney Manor, checking out the ruins and the archeological digs. St. Kitt’s lays claim to seven archeological sites and eighteen identifies eighteen locations of historical significance.
And then there’s Brimstone Hill, a regular bastion of history, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, a fortification often called the “Gibraltar of the Caribbean”. On a peaceful Sunday morning we ascend the slopes of Brimstone Hill, a vantage-point boasting views of St. Eustatius and Saba from this redoubt squatting eight hundred feet above the Caribbean Sea.
“French forces laid siege here in 1782,” our guide tells us. “Eight thousand attackers; eight hundred defenders.” When it was nominated a UNESCO site, this fortress was described as both a monument to the ingenuity of British military engineers and the skill, strength and endurance of the African slaves who built and maintained it.
Perfect example of the island’s primacy as a history-lovers must-do, Brimstone Hill is a bastion of history.
Pompeii of the Caribbean (Montserrat)
Despite its nickname as Pompeii of the Caribbean the buried settlement of Plymouth is hardly the only island site to appeal to history lovers. Photo courtesy of Montserrat Tourism.
Montserrat boasts friendly people, secluded beaches and great hiking but its primacy as destination for history lovers is due to the resurrection of a previously dormant volcano beginning in 1995. In 1997 a major eruption killed nineteen people, burying the capital, Plymouth, in ash.
Ironically, this tragedy has also had a positive impact on an island that was once the playground of the rich and famous. (Musicians like McCartney, Sting and Elton John recorded hits at the famous on-island AIR Studios). Montserrat has been spared the onslaught of tourists that invaded other islands, allowing it to retain a charm reminiscent of the Caribbean of old.
The volcano’s also created a must-do for history-lovers. Think Pompeii of the Caribbean. To tour this area buried in volcanic ash (it’s called the Exclusion Zone due to potential dangers related to volcanic activity) you need a certified guide. It is a sombre and sobering experience.
But a tour here is hardly the only appeal for history-lovers. Montserrat Tourism has identified nearly two dozen significant historic or cultural sites, just one more piece of evidence to support my theory.
The Caribbean is for (history) lovers.
Article written by Mark Stevens. Photography by Sharon Matthews-StevensFor twenty-five years the writing/photography team of Mark Stevens and Sharon Matthews-Stevens has provided editorial and photographic Caribbean content to a multitude of publications.
They’ve worked with newspapers from The Washington Post to The Globe and Mail, magazines from Travellife to Caribbean Business and Travel, and online publications from ATasteforTravel.ca to VacayNetwork.com. They have hiked the rainforests of St. Vincent in search of the Vinci parrot, sailed the waters off countless islands and traversed Jamaica in search of the world’s best jerk.
In addition to numerous other writing and photography awards, they have been recognized for their writing and photography fifteen times by the Caribbean Tourism Organization during their Canadian Media Awards events. Mark and Sharon are true Caribbean specialists.
