News
UNESCO provides assistance for the conservation of Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, World Heritage property of Saint Kitts and Nevis
On Wednesday 1 May 2019, UNESCO officials visited the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park and announced a financial contribution to its preservation and maintenance. The project will commence in June 2019 and to be implemented by the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park Society in cooperation with the National Commission of St. Kitts and Nevis for UNESCO.
The Brimstone Hill Fortress is a remarkable example of European military engineering dating from the 17th and 18th centuries that was designed by the British and built by African slave labour. The property comprises a complex of structures in an area situated on different levels of the upper third of the hill.
UNESCO project will specifically concern the Orillon Bastion, in the 鈥淣orth-West work鈥 group of structures as in 2016 a portion of the wall of the Bastion did collapse. This apparently occurred after some heavy rains fell over few days. The collapse was of a section that had shown previous signs of buckling under its own weight. The collapsed section is from the bottom section of the wall, which now leaves the upper section suspended without much support, which means that the upper section would soon collapse.
To help the Management of the property face this problem, a capacity building project financed by the UNESCO / Netherlands Funds-in-Trust was successfully implemented from August 2016 to September 2017. In the course of the project, a Training Workshop took place entitled 鈥楥onservation and Management of Military Architecture-related World Heritage Properties of the Caribbean鈥 (November 2016).
Present project also financed by the UNESCO / Netherlands Funds-in-Trust will enable to conduct the archaeological studies necessary to plan adequate conservation works for Orillon Bastion, implement hydrological studies identifying water flow to and from the site and elaborate an appropriate drainage system and finalize the conservation works plan in line with the results of the archaeological studies.
Finally, the project will contribute to the first phase of the conservation works and provide the good opportunity to reinforce the national capacities in management and conservation of the World Heritage property.
