Croix-des-Bouquets

Croix-des-Bouquets stands on the plain a dozen kilometres north-east of the capital and its Noailles quarter is the metalworking capital of Haiti. Georges Liautaud began beating grave crosses out of oil drums here in the 1950s, and several hundred workshops now follow him, flattening the steel with a mallet and cutting the figures out freehand with a chisel. Mermaids, trees of life and vodou spirits come out of drums that arrived as fuel packaging. The hammering carries the length of the street. Work is sold straight from the yards where it is made, The commune was created by royal decree in 1749 on land given up by four plantations, one called Noailles.