National History Park
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How it came to be
On 1 January 1804, after fourteen years of struggle by enslaved Black people, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of Haiti. To protect the young state, Dessalines charged General Henri Christophe with building a fortress on the summit of Pic Laferrière. The Citadelle was commissioned in 1805, and up to 20,000 workers are believed to have built it, about a tenth of whom died.
After Dessalines died in 1806, Christophe proclaimed himself King Henry I of the north in 1811. The Citadelle held quarters for the king and his family and stores of food and water for 5,000 defenders for a year. Its 365 cannons were gathered from weapons left behind by European forces. At Milot, at the foot of the mountain, the king built Sans-Souci Palace, inaugurated in 1813.
When the king died in 1820 his body was buried in a courtyard of the Citadelle, and the palace was looted. An earthquake in 1842 badly damaged it, and it was never rebuilt. A presidential decree of 1978 created the 25 km2 National History Park, inscribed in 1982. Its monuments are considered the first built by Black people who had won their freedom.
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