Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison Barbados

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison - Barbados

Short Report

Historic Bridgetown and the garrison, an excellent example of the British colonial architecture consisting of a well-preserved old town built in the 17th, 18th and 19th century, this is a testament to the dissemination of Great Britain's Atlantic colonial empire. The complex also features a nearby military garrison that consists of a large number of historic buildings. With its v-belt urban layout the property reflects a different approach to colonial town-planning in relation to the Spanish and Dutch colonial cities of the region which were built along a grid plan.

Wonderful Universal Importance

As one of the first cities with a reinforced port in the Caribbean network of military and maritime mercantile spearheads of the British Atlantic, Historic Bridgetown and his garrison was the focus of trade-based English expansion on the American continent. In the 17th century, the fortified port city was to be able to make its interest in the British Atlantic trade and was a port of transhipment of goods, in particular sugar and states enslaved persons intended for Barbados and the rest of the American continent. Historic Bridgetown the illegal settlement patterns and 17th century zooms of a English medieval type, in particular, the organic serpentine streets, supported the development and transformation of creolized forms of architecture, including Caribbean Georgian.

Historic Bridgetown the enhanced port areas were linked to the Bay Street corridor of the historic center of St. Ann's garrison. The property has a natural harbor, Carlisle Bay, was the first port on the trans-Atlantic crossing and was perfectly positioned as the starting point for the projection of British imperial power, to defend and develop the British commercial interests in the region and the Atlantic World. Used as a base for amphibious command and control, the garrison established the Eastern Caribbean headquarters of the British army and Navy. Historic Bridgetown and the garrison took part in the international trade of goods and enslaved, but also in the transfer of ideas and cultures that characteristic of the developing countries colonial undertaking in the Atlantic World.

Source:whc/unesco