The now sleepy fishing village of Port Royal, Jamaica, may soon be added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
Nomination is currently in process for the town to be inscribed as a world archaeological site, according to the island’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange.
“The archaeological site of Port Royal, including terrestrial and underwater, are currently going through UNESCO’s World Heritage nomination,” she said recently.
Minister Grange said that a file containing the management plan, maps, and other important information supporting the nomination will be submitted at the end of this month.
“The final submission of the nomination is to be done at the end of January in 2024, when we will know if that site will be declared by UNESCO,” she said.
Grange said that Port Royal is the first of its kind to be placed on the World Heritage List of 17th Century English settlement underwater archaeological sites.
‘The city that sank’
Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and commerce in the Caribbean Sea by the latter half of the 17th century.
During that time, Port Royal was home to privateers who were encouraged to attack Spanish vessels, at a time when smaller European nations were reluctant to attack Spain directly. As a port city, it was notorious for its gaudy displays of wealth and loose morals. It was a popular homeport for the English and Dutch-sponsored privateers to spend their treasure during the 17th century. Pirates from around the world congregated at Port Royal, coming from waters as far away as Madagascar. It once had the reputation as “the wickedest city in the West.”
It was destroyed by an earthquake on June 6, 1692, which had an accompanying tsunami, leading to the establishment of Kingston, which is now the largest city in Jamaica. Severe hurricanes have regularly damaged the area. Another severe earthquake occurred in 1907.
Today, Port Royal is known to post-medieval archaeologists as the “City that Sank”. Renowned archeologist Robert Marx considers it the most important underwater archaeological site in the Western hemisphere.
Plans for other world heritage sites
The Minister added that Jamaica has other sites on the World Heritage tentative list.
“We are looking at the Cockpit Country and the Seville Heritage Park Museum,” she said.
Jamaica’s first World Heritage site, the Blue and John Crow Mountains, was inscribed to UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 3, 2015.
Jamaica was recently elected to three important UNESCO committees, including the prestigious World Heritage Committee which has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Read: Jamaica elected to UNESCO World Heritage, sports and environment committees
