This is a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean.
Site | Image | Location | Criteria | Area ha (acre) |
Year | Description | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alejandro de Humboldt National Park | Holguín and Guantánamo,![]() 20°27′N 75°0′W / 20.450°N 75.000°W |
Natural: (ix), (x) |
69,341 (171,350); buffer zone 34,330 (84,800) | 2001 | The park exhibits a wide array of geology types. It contains many biological species, including 16 of Cuba's 28 endemic plant species, as well as animal species such as the endangered Cuban solenodon. | [3] [4] | |
Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites | English Harbour, Antigua,![]() 17°00′30″N 61°45′52″W / 17.00833°N 61.76444°W |
Cultural: (ii), (iv) |
255 (630); buffer zone 3,873 (9,570) | 2016 | The site consists of a group of Georgian-style naval buildings and structures, set within a walled enclosure. The natural environment of this side of the island of Antigua, with its deep, narrow bays surrounded by highlands, offered shelter from hurricanes and was ideal for repairing ships. The construction of the Dockyard by the British navy would not have been possible without the labour of generations of enslaved Africans since the end of the 18th century. Its aim was to protect the interests of sugar cane planters at a time when European powers were competing for control of the Eastern Caribbean. | [5] | |
Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba | Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo,![]() 20°00′21″N 75°37′4″W / 20.00583°N 75.61778°W |
Cultural: (iii), (iv) |
81,475 (201,330) | 2000 | During the 19th and early 20th centuries, eastern Cuba was primarily involved with coffea cultivation. The remnants of the plantations display the techniques used in the difficult terrain, as well as the economic and social significance of the plantation system in Cuba and the Caribbean. | [5] | |
Blue and John Crow Mountains | ![]() 18°04′39″N 76°34′16″W / 18.077500°N 76.571111°W |
Mixed: (iii), (vi), (x) |
26,252 (64,870); buffer zone 28,494 (70,410) | 2015 | The park covers roughly about 4.5% of Jamaica. | [6] | |
Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park | Saint Kitts,![]() 17°20′49″N 62°50′14″W / 17.34694°N 62.83722°W |
Cultural: (iii), (iv) |
— | 1999 | Built during the 17th and 18th centuries by African slaves in a period of European colonial expansion, the fortress is an exceptionally well preserved example of British military architecture in the Caribbean. | [7] | |
Colonial City of Santo Domingo | Distrito Nacional,![]() 18°29′0″N 69°55′0″W / 18.48333°N 69.91667°W |
Cultural: (ii), (iv), (vi) |
93 (230) | 1990 | Santo Domingo was founded in 1498 shortly after the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the island and had the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university built in the New World. Its grid patterned town plan became the model for other colonial towns in the Americas. | [8] | |
Desembarco del Granma National Park | Granma,![]() 19°53′N 77°38′W / 19.883°N 77.633°W |
Natural: (vii), (viii) |
32,576 (80,500) | 1999 | The park features a unique karst topography with features such as terraces, cliffs, and waterfalls. | [9] [10] | |
Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Curaçao | ![]() ![]() 12°6′7″N 68°54′8″W / 12.10194°N 68.90222°W |
Willemstad,Cultural: (ii), (iv), (v) |
86 (210); buffer zone 87 (210) | 1997 | The architecture of the 17th-century Dutch trading settlement Willemstad combines styles from the Netherlands with Spanish and Portuguese colonial towns. | [11] | |
Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison | ![]() 13°5′48″N 59°36′50″W / 13.09667°N 59.61389°W |
BridgetownCultural: (ii), (iii), (iv) |
187 (460); buffer zone 321 (790) | 2011 | Bridgetown is an excellent example of a British colonial settlement built from the 17th to 19th century. Unlike Dutch and Spanish settlements of the area, the town is not laid out on a grid plan but follows a serpentine urban design. | [12] | |
Historic Centre of Camagüey | Camagüey,![]() 21°22′43″N 77°55′7″W / 21.37861°N 77.91861°W |
Cultural: (iv), (v) |
54 (130); buffer zone 276 (680) | 2008 | Camagüey is among the first seven villages founded by the Spanish in Cuba, first settled in 1528. The irregular organization of the city is distinct from the typical, orderly construction of most other Spanish settlements. This maze-like style was influenced by medieval European ideas and traditional construction methods of early immigrant masons and construction workers. | [13] | |
La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico | San Juan![]() ![]() 18°28′0″N 66°7′30″W / 18.46667°N 66.12500°W |
Cultural: (vi) |
33 (82) | 1983 | A series of defensive structures built between the 16th and 20th centuries at a strategic point in the Caribbean Sea to protect the city and the Bay of San Juan. They represent a fine display of European military architecture adapted to harbour sites on the American continent. | [14] | |
Morne Trois Pitons National Park | ![]() 15°16′N 61°17′W / 15.267°N 61.283°W |
south central part of the island,Natural: (viii), (x) |
6,857 (16,940) | 1997 | [15] | ||
National History Park – Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers | Nord,![]() 19°34′25″N 72°14′39″W / 19.57361°N 72.24417°W |
Cultural: (iv), (vi) |
— | 1982 | Sans-Souci Palace was the royal residence constructed by King Henri I. It was the most important of nine palaces built by the king, along with fifteen châteaux, numerous forts, and sprawling summer homes on his twenty plantations.[16] The Citadelle Laferrière is a large mountaintop fortress in northern Haiti, and is the largest fortress in the Americas. The mountaintop fortress has itself become a national icon of Haiti, featured on currency, stamps, and tourist ministry posters.[17] The Buildings of Ramiers were among the first monuments constructed after the Haitian Revolution.[18] | [19] | |
Old Havana and its Fortifications | La Habana,![]() 23°8′0″N 82°21′0″W / 23.13333°N 82.35000°W |
Cultural: (iv), (v) |
143 (350) | 1982 | Havana was founded in 1519 by Spanish colonists, growing to become one of the Caribbean's primary shipbuilding centers by the 17th century. The old city was built in the Baroque and Neoclassical styles. Historical landmarks in Old Havana include La Cabaña, the Cathedral of Havana and the Great Theatre of Havana. | [20] | |
Pitons Management Area | Soufrière,![]() 13°48′26″N 61°4′13″W / 13.80722°N 61.07028°W |
near Natural: (vii), (viii) |
2,909 (7,190) | 2004 | [21] | ||
San Pedro de la Roca Castle, Santiago de Cuba | Santiago de Cuba Province,![]() 19°58′0″N 75°52′15″W / 19.96667°N 75.87083°W |
Cultural: (iv), (v) |
— | 1997 | The large fort was built to defend the important port of Santiago de Cuba. The design of the fortification was based on Italian and Renaissance architecture. The complex of magazines, bastions, and batteries is one of the most complete and well-preserved Spanish-American defense fortifications. | [22] | |
Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios | Sancti Spíritus Province,![]() 21°48′11″N 79°59′4″W / 21.80306°N 79.98444°W |
Cultural: (iv), (v) |
— | 1988 | The city of Trinidad was founded in the early 16th century. In 1518, Hernán Cortés began his expedition to conquer Mexico from the port at Trinidad. The city prospered throughout the colonial period in large part due to the success of the local sugar industry. The adjacent Valley de los Ingenios was the origin of the Cuban sugar industry, which emerged in the 18th century. It is home to numerous cane sugar mills, as well as cattle ranches and tobacco plantations. | [23] | |
Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos | Cienfuegos,![]() 22°8′50″N 80°27′10″W / 22.14722°N 80.45278°W |
Cultural: (ii), (v) |
— | 2005 | Cienfuegos was founded in 1819 as a Spanish colony, though its first inhabitants were French immigrants. It became a trade center in the sugar cane, tobacco, and coffee trade because of its location on the Bay of Cienfuegos. Because of its establishment in the later colonial period, the architecture has more modern influences: including modern ideas of urban planning. | [24] | |
Viñales Valley | Pinar del Río Province,![]() 22°37′N 83°43′W / 22.617°N 83.717°W |
Cultural: (iv) |
— | 1999 | The village of Viñales was founded in 1875 after the expansion of tobacco cultivation in the surrounding valley. The Valley features a karst topography, vernacular architecture, and traditional cultivation methods. The Valley was also the site of various military engagements in the Cuban War of Independence and Cuban Revolution. | [25] [26] |
In addition to sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, member states can maintain a list of tentative sites that they may consider for nomination. Nominations for the World Heritage List are only accepted if the site was previously listed on the tentative list.[27]
Ref No. | Site | Image | Location | Year listed | UNESCO criteria | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6070 | Historic Lighthouses of The Bahamas | ![]() |
2015 | iii (cultural) | For over 150 years, British Imperial Lighthouse Service lights have been a constant in Bahamian maritime history. They are symbols of the unique heritage of maritime navigation. There are only a few of these hand-wound kerosene-burning lighthouses left in the world and they are found in the Bahamas.[28] | |
6071 | The Inagua National Park | Inagua, ![]() |
2015 | vi, x (mixed) | It is an important area for breeding, passage and wintering for numerous species of waterbirds and is one of the only Wetlands of International Importance in the Caribbean. It has the largest breeding colony of Caribbean flamingos.[29] | |
1993 | The Scotland District of Barbados | Saint Andrew's Parish and Saint Joseph's Parish ![]() |
2005 | not stated (natural) | The Scotland District of Barbados has base of sedimentary rocks and is the only place in the Caribbean that a submarine mountain range lies above water. This sparsely populated region holds interesting rock formations created by tectonic movement and erosion.[30] | |
5942 | The Industrial Heritage of Barbados: The Story of Sugar and Rum | ![]() |
2014 | ii, iii, vi (cultural) | Sugarcane landscapes are an outstanding example of a cultural landscape shaped by Europeans and Africans in the Atlantic World. The site illustrates the impact of human settlement, slave labour and agricultural activities, and more specifically the production of Caribbean sugar and rum, from the mid-17th century on the natural landscape.[31] | |
1798 | National Schools of Art, Cubanacán | Havana, ![]() |
2003 | i, ii, iii, iv, v (cultural) | The site is one of the most outstanding examples of contemporary Latin American architecture, with an acknowledged artistic value, reuniting testimonial values stemming from the historic moment in which it was built, when cement and concrete were scarce in Cuba.[32] | |
1801 | Ciénaga de Zapata National Park | Matanzas, ![]() |
2003 | vii, ix, x (natural) | It is an extensive ecosystem made up of mangrove forests, keys, seagrass beds, coral reef barriers and deep reefs. The conservation status of coral reefs in the area is most remarkable.[33] | |
1802 | Reef System in the Cuban Caribbean | ![]() |
2003 | vii, x (natural) | The site is a series of marine protected areas with well-preserved underwater ecosystems stretching 800 km along the Caribbean coastline of Cuba.[34] | |
6020 | Fort Shirley | Saint John Parish, ![]() |
2015 | ii, iv (cultural) | Fort Shirley was formerly a military outpost, a sterling example of its kind in the West Indies. It was the scene of a famous revolt of African slave soldiers in protest over their conditions there in 1802. Their action resulted in all slave soldiers in the British Empire being made free in 1807.[35] | |
6021 | Morne Diablotin National Park | Saint Joseph Parish, ![]() |
2015 | vii, x (natural) | The site is home to two endemic bird species — Dominica's national bird, the sisserou parrot, and the Jaco red-necked parrot — which occur nowhere else on Earth. The Park also covers a wide range of habitats, including the globally rare elfin woodland ecosystem.[36] | |
6022 | Soufriere-Scott's Head Marine Reserve | Saint Mark Parish, ![]() |
2015 | vii, x (natural) | The site is a vast submerged volcanic crater, with some of the most pristine marine environments in the Caribbean. The site also has significant cultural importance to the indigenous Carib people.[37] | |
1947 | Historic Centre of Jacmel | Sud-Est Department, | 2004 | ii, iv (cultural) | The colonial city of Jacmel was founded in 1698 over an ancient pre-Columbian village.[38] | |
5881 | Volcanic and forested areas of Martinique | ![]() |
2014 | vii, viii, ix, x (natural) | The island's varied topography creates a wide range of bioclimates and has led to the development of multiple forest ecosystems with rich, varied and specialized plant life.[39] | |
5627 | National Marine Park | ![]() |
2011 | vii, ix (natural) | Established in 1979, Bonaire National Marine Park is the oldest marine reserve in the world. The unique combination of species and high biodiversity make the Park's coral reefs and mangroves outstanding.[40] | |
5632 | Plantations in West Curaçao | ![]() |
2011 | ii, iv, v (cultural) | The plantations of West Curaçao are a cultural landscape that uniquely reflect a distinctive variant of the Caribbean slave plantation society that evolved between the mid-17th and early 20th centuries.[41] | |
5644 | Banwari Trace Archaeological Site | Banwari Trace, Siparia, Siparia | 2011 | iii, v (cultural) | The Banwari Trace deposit is to be found on the southern edge of the Oropuche Lagoon in southwest Trinidad, just west of the Coora River. The site occupies the top of a Miocene hillock, originally covered with deciduous seasonal forest, which rises above the swamp. All of the Archaic sites in the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico, including Banwari trace, belong to the Ortoiroid Series, which gets its name from the type site of Ortoire in Trinidad.[42] | |
5645 | La Brea Pitch Lake | La Brea, Siparia | 2011 | vii, viii (natural) | The Pitch Lake is found in southwest Trinidad in the village of La Brea. The lake measures approximately one hundred (100) acres (41 hectares), and is estimated to be two hundred and fifty (250) feet (76 metres) deep in the centre. It holds about ten million (10,000,000) tons of pitch. It is situated about twelve hundred (1200) yards from the sea, in a depression immediately south of a 140 feet high hill, from the summit of which the ground slopes gently northwards to the sea.[43] | |
5646 | Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve | Mason Hall, Tobago | 2011 | v, vi, vii, ix, x (mixed) | Tobago is the smaller, relatively northeasterly island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, with a surface area of about 316 km2. The Main Ridge is literally the backbone of the island, Gutting lengthways across two thirds of Tobago's surface. It encompasses 3958 hectares (9780 acres) of tropical rainforest specifically lower montane, lowland and xerophytic rainforest - and reaches a height of 604 metres. The majority of the forest reserve is lower montane, and is found at heights above 244 metres.[44] | |
5682 | Turks and Caicos Islands | ![]() |
2012 | x (natural) | The extremely hot, dry conditions led to natural salt production in the interior wetlands of the islands, leading to one of the first and major international salt industries in the Americas. The smaller cays are important for breeding seabirds, and endemic reptiles, invertebrates and plants. The wetlands are globally important for shorebirds. |