Citadelle Laferrière

The Citadelle stands on a peak at nine hundred metres and is the largest fortress in the Americas, built by Henri Christophe after independence against a French return that never came. Twenty thousand people worked on it for fifteen years. Its walls reach forty metres, and hundreds of cannon taken from the colonial forts still sit in the galleries with pyramids of iron shot beside them. Below at Milot lie the ruins of the Sans-Souci palace he built as his court. UNESCO listed both in 1982. The last stretch is walked or ridden on horseback.