Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

	Barbade (Amérique latine et Caraïbes)
Date de soumission :	07/10/2009
Critères:	(ii)(iii)(iv)
Catégorie :	Culturel
Soumis par :	Barbados World Heritage Task Force, Ministry of Community Development and Culture
Etat, province ou région :	St. Michael
Coordonnées	N13 05 48 W59 36 50
Ref.:	1991

Description

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison area are witness to more than three centuries of maritime development which allowed Bridgetown to be a major port city and trading centre in the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries. Bridgetown played an important role in the growth of the British Empire, not only as a colony, but as a projection of power for the British military in the Caribbean region which in the 18^th and 19^th centuries were the provider of much of the Empires wealth. The port city was also an entrepôt for the movement of goods and enslaved people into the Caribbean and South America. The security of maritime trade and ability to lay claim to the islands of foreign powers rested on the troops housed on the Garrison which included personnel from the Royal Army and Navy. Historic Bridgetown was a major hub in the movement of people and communication, which aided in the development and growth of the Trans - Atlantic trade. The town and its large garrison was also used to test the accuracy of new navigational equipment when it became the site chosen to test the Harrison H4 (Marine time keeper) in 1764 to accurately record longitude. Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison contain listed sites and building that speak to the development of a medieval town into a major port town and garrison with significant civic, commercial and military buildings in the West Indies.

Textual description of the boundary(ies) of the nominated property

The capital city of Bridgetown is located on the sheltered south-western coast of the Caribbean island of Barbados. The core area is dissected by the E-W flowing Constitution River, which deposits into the Careenage Basin, and ultimately into the picturesque Carlisle Bay area.

The Bridgetown Community Area radiates from the core area, and stretches from the University of the West Indies in the north to its Garrison and St. Ann's Fort in the south. This port city is located in St. Michael, which is the most densely populated of the eleven parishes on the island.

Valeur universelle exceptionnelle

Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionelle

As one of the earliest towns established as an urban centre and port in the Caribbean network of military and commercial outposts of the British Empire, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison was the focus of trade-based English expansion in the Americas. Developed as a nexus point in the international trade of a popular tropical staple, sugar, it was able to establish its importance as a commercial port in the Atlantic World and the British Empire by the mid to late 17^th century. Historic Bridgetown's irregular settlement patterns and medieval street layout are attributed to its spontaneous development as it grew to accommodate the rapid transition of Barbados' agro-economy from the production of colonial staples such as cotton and tobacco to widespread plantation-based sugar production.

Historic Bridgetown was an entrepôt not only for goods and slaves destined for Barbados, but was also the trans-shipment point for enslaved persons distributed throughout the Americas. In the age of sail, Barbados' leeward position meant that it was difficult to attack by sea. Invading ships would have to tack into the wind to carry out an assault on the island which is why the island was never ruled by any other European power during its almost 400 year history. This safe harbor was then utilized as the launching point for the projection and defense of British imperial power in the region.

As a result of its strategic location and economic importance at the height of European imperial conflicts in the region, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison became the Eastern Caribbean Headquarters for the British Navy until 1805 and its Army until 1905. The British Colonial Garrison concept developed into a form of imperial administration and control for their British colonies and, as such, is a unique form of garrisoning, not replicated by other imperial powers. Historic Bridgetown's Garrison is the most structurally complete 18^th and 19^th century British Colonial Garrison in the world, becoming the blueprint for garrison development in the rest of the British Empire. It has retained an exceptionally high percentage of its physical attributes to make it the only example of its kind to exhibit the full spectrum of activities that such a complex could provide.

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison participated in the international trade of not only of goods, but also the transmission of ideas and cultures that characterized the developing colonial enterprise in the Atlantic World. By the late 17^th century, trade relationships were established with England, North America, Africa, and the colonial Caribbean, Bridgetown was a cosmopolitan centre of commerce, settlement and exploitation.

Satements of authenticity and/or integrity

Historic Bridgetown's irregular settlement patterns and medieval street layout are attributed to its spontaneous development as it grew to accommodate the rapid transition of Barbados' agro-economy from the production of colonial staples such as cotton and tobacco to widespread plantation-based sugar production.

Historic Bridgetown's Garrison is the most structurally complete 18^th and 19^th century British Colonial Garrison in the world, becoming the blueprint for garrison development in the rest of the British Empire. It has retained an exceptionally high percentage of its physical attributes to make it the only example of its kind to exhibit the full spectrum of activities that such a complex could provide.

Comparison with other similar properties

As a colonial city, Historic Bridgetown is representative of 17th century English-influenced urban development in the Anglophone Caribbean. Spanish Caribbean colonial cities established in the 15th century are well represented on the World Heritage list, but the urban-rural relationship in a small island English-based plantation economy has not been represented as a key player in the emergence of colonial economies participating in global trade networks in the 17th-19th centuries. The development of Historic Bridgetown's urban landscape is also representative of the administrative, military, economic, cultural and architectural significance of the Caribbean colonial city with its confluence of peoples and cultures from all over the world participating in the birth of a globalising economy.

Though there are to be found port cities with their attendant fortifications dating to the 500 year period of colonialisation in the region, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison area are unique. Its uniqueness lays not only in its built environment and cultural landscape, but that its influence beyond its geographic shores in the expansion of empire for the British is greater than that of the Spanish, Dutch and French fortified port cities in the region. Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison represent the projection of a British expansionist programme in the Atlantic World, and particularly in the Caribbean. During the 17th and 18th century Bridgetown and its Garrison was the headquarters of both the Royal Navy and Army. English expansionism in the region was directed from Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, making it unique as a centre of both civilian and military administration in the Caribbean.

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