Suva became Fiji's capital in 1877 after Levuka outgrew its cliffs, and the colonial city built on Rewa swampland still shows it. Three days through Lapita shards, Ratu Cakobau's cession, Indian indenture and post-coup politics.
Founded 1904, the Pacific's richest collection: 3,000-year-old Lapita pottery from Sigatoka, the rudder of HMS Bounty, cannibal forks (iculanibokola) and the leather sole of missionary Thomas Baker, eaten in 1867.
Laid out 1881 as Suva's Botanical Gardens by Sir John Bates Thurston, colonial governor and botanist. The clock tower memorial honours Suva's first mayor G.J. Marks; the grounds were the site of the pre-colonial village of Suva before 1882.
At Nasova, east of the city, three stones mark where Ratu Seru Cakobau ceded Fiji to Queen Victoria on 10 October 1874, and where independence was returned on 10 October 1970. The old provincial buildings still stand behind.
Built 1902 in sandstone shipped from Sydney, the Marist cathedral on Pratt Street served Suva's Catholic settlers and Solomon Island labourers. The twin towers and rose window survived the 1953 tsunami and Cyclone Winston in 2016.
Opened 1939 on reclaimed swampland driven with 1,200 hardwood piles, this Art Deco-classical block housed the colonial legislature. Fiji's 1987 and 2000 coups both played out at its doors; the clock tower still keeps colonial time.
Named for Prince Albert, the park was cleared of trees in 1928 so Charles Kingsford Smith could land the Southern Cross on the first trans-Pacific flight. The wooden pavilion commemorates it; the park hosted the 1970 independence ceremony.
The 1992 complex in Veiuto uses a vale ni bose form with traditional Fijian roof lines. Here George Speight held MPs hostage for 56 days in May 2000 — the most consequential single event in modern Fijian politics.
The deep-water harbour that made Suva the capital in 1877. Colonial Sugar Refining Company ships loaded here from 1882; the Stinson Parade seawall and old Customs House frame the same anchorage where the Cession fleet moored.
Samabula's Mariamma Temple serves descendants of the 60,965 girmitiyas brought from India between 1879 and 1916 for the cane fields. South Indian firewalking ceremonies still take place here each August.
Built 1909 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, Suva's first public library is one of only three Carnegie buildings in the Pacific. Its colonnaded front and reading room survive largely unaltered a century on.
Founded 1968 on a former Royal New Zealand Air Force flying-boat base, USP is jointly owned by 12 Pacific nations. The Oceania Centre holds decolonisation-era art and the Pacific Collection archives hold missionary journals.
Suva Point's coastal defences were dug in 1942 when Fiji became a US-New Zealand staging base against Japanese advance. Concrete gun emplacements sit above the reef flat where the Rewa delta meets the sea.