The ramparts
Above the clouds.
SPC Gibran Torres, United States Army — Public domain · Rémi Kaupp — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA — CC BY 2.0 · Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA — CC BY 2.0 · Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA — CC BY 2.0 · Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA — CC BY 2.0
The Citadelle Laferrière is a huge stone fortress on a mountaintop in northern Haiti. Thick, towering walls rise like the prow of a ship through the cloud, green mountains fall away around it, and its courtyards hold rows of old cannons and piles of iron cannonballs. Henri Christophe ordered it built in 1805 and it was finished in 1820, raised by tens of thousands of people who had been enslaved before Haiti's independence, to defend the new state against a French return that never came. It stands on the Bonnet à l'Evêque summit, about 8 km uphill from the town of Milot. It was listed with Sans-Souci Palace as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 and is one of Haiti's best-known landmarks. You walk or ride a horse up from the car park, then explore its passages, halls and courtyards, and look out from the ramparts over the valleys, the coastal plain and the sea beyond. The fortress is about 19 km in a straight line south of Cap-Haïtien, about 27 km by road. The climb is steep, so bring water and start early, before the heat and cloud. The UK advises against all travel to Haiti because of the security situation, so check current advice before you go.
Above the clouds.
Rows of them.
To the sea.
Bonnet à l'Evêque summit, above Milot, Nord department
On foot or horseback from the car park above Milot.
Yes, one ticket covers both and the palace is on the way.