Photos from Our World

Jacmel, on the south coast of Haiti

The southern port town of Jacmel is a fine place with elegant townhouses dating to the 1800s. It has a busy art scene, is host to the "Festival Film Jakmèl", a large film festival and the "Festival Mizik Jakmèl", an international music festival. It has a famous carnival and nearby are white sand beaches and the "Bassins Bleu", Haiti's most famous natural deep water pools. Jacmel is regarded as one of the safest cities in the country and therefore popular with visitors. But the catastrophic earthquake of 12 January 2010 devastated this town with most buildings in ruins.

Jacmel was founded in 1698 as the capital of the south eastern part of the French colony Saint-Domingue. This was Taíno territory, a part of the Xaragua chiefdom ruled by cacique (chief) Bohechio. The French established the town and named it Jacmel after the Taíno Yaquimel. A century later Haili's national hero Toussaint L'Ouverture fought over Jacmel in the so-called War of Knives between him and his fellow countryman André Rigaud, who wished to maintain authority over the city; the war began in June of 1799 but by November the rebels were pushed back to the port and Jacmel fell to Toussaint's troops in March 1800.

	Jacmel architecture	Playing dominoes	Back street in Jacmel	Near Jacmel's coast
	Along the beach	River mouth in Jacmel	Crabs caught in Jacmel	Band in a Jacmel hotel
	Street in Jacmel	Market in Jacmel	Classroom in Jacmel	In a Jacmel school

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