🇭🇹 Haiti
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti and one of the most historically significant and simultaneously most devastated cities in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti was the first Black republic in the world (independence declared 1804 after the only successful slave revolution in history — 500,000 enslaved Africans led by Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeated Napoleon's army and British forces simultaneously), and that foundational act of liberation has been paid for in extraordinary suffering: France demanded reparations of 90 million gold francs (equivalent to $21 billion today) in 1825 as the price of international recognition, a debt Haiti was still paying in the 1940s; the United States occupied Haiti 1915–1934; decades of dictatorship (the Duvalier family, "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc," 1957–1986 using the Tonton Macoutes paramilitary terror); a catastrophic 2010 earthquake (7.0 magnitude, epicentre 25 km from the capital, killing 160,000–300,000 people and collapsing 250,000 buildings); and ongoing gang control of much of the city since 2021, following the assassination of President Moïse. Despite all this — and the 2026 security situation remains dangerous (French, US, UK governments advise against travel to Haiti) — Port-au-Prince has extraordinary cultural assets: the world's most important Haitian art collection (Centre d'Art, Musée du Panthéon National), the Iron Market (Marché en Fer, the Victorian cast-iron market shipped from France in 1889), the Citadelle Laferrière (UNESCO, the largest fortress in the Americas, 3 hrs north in Cap-Haïtien), and the Haitian school of painting (naïf art in vivid Caribbean colours depicting religious, market and historical scenes) which has international art market recognition. Note: As of 2026 the security situation requires assessment of current advisories before any visit.