Presidential Palace (Haiti)

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Presidential Palace, 2006
The destroyed presidential palace, 2010

The National Palace ( French Palais national ) or Presidential Palace ( Palais présidentiel ) in Port-au-Prince was the seat of the head of state of Haiti .

history

The first official residence of the Presidents of Haiti ("Maison Exécutif") was destroyed when President Sylvain Salnave was overthrown on December 18, 1869, when a projectile hit the throne room and the 2,000 kegs of gunpowder Salnave had stored in the palace exploded.

President Louis Étienne Félicité Lysius Salomon had the second National Palace built in the 1880s. It was destroyed on August 7, 1912 when the huge stocks of gunpowder that President François Antoine Simon had stored in the palace caught fire and exploded along with 1 million rounds of ammunition. The palace collapsed, Simon's successor, President Jean Jacques Dessalines Michel Cincinnatus Leconte , and about 300 soldiers of the Presidential Guard perished.

In the same year, Leconte's successor, President Jean Antoine Tancrède Auguste , commissioned the Haitian architect Georges Baussan (1874–1958) to build the third national palace. Baussan was based on the French neo-classicisme and designed a four-wing complex with a central wing and two inner courtyards. Work began in 1914; In 1922 the new National Palace was completed.

In the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, the upper floors collapsed. In September 2012 the ruin was torn down.

Planning for a new building

Initially, a new building was planned that would be similar to the old one, but built to be earthquake-proof. On the fourth anniversary of the earthquake, President Michel Martelly had his press secretary explain that the new construction plans would not be pursued. The country is facing more pressing spending than spending $ 100 million on a fourth national palace.

Shortly after President Jovenel Moïse came to power in April 2017, plans were presented to rebuild the presidential palace. Outwardly it should correspond to the destroyed old one and be built within the next few years.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Debs Heinl, Nancy Gordon Heinl, Michael Heinl: Written in blood. The story of the Haitian people, 1492-1995 . University Press of America, Lanham 1996, ISBN 0-7618-0229-0 , pp. 232-233.
  2. ^ Robert Debs Heinl, Nancy Gordon Heinl, Michael Heinl: Written in blood. The story of the Haitian people, 1492-1995 . University Press of America, Lanham 1996, p. 348.
  3. ↑ Les Cahiers du CHISS . Center Haïtien d'Investigation en Sciences Sociales, Port-au-Prince. Issue April 1970, p. 46.
  4. ↑ Exalus Mergenat: La reconstruction du palais national n'est pas une priorité, selon la présidence , AlterPresse, January 10, 2014, accessed on September 3, 2016.
  5. ^ Haiti to rebuild quake-damaged National Palace (en-GB) . In: BBC News , April 19, 2017. 

Web links

Commons : Presidential Palace (Haiti)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 18 ° 32 ′ 35 "  N , 72 ° 20 ′ 20"  W.