St. Vincent & Grenadines · 5 sights · guided virtual tour, about 4 min
Welcome to Kingstown, the capital and largest city of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It sits in the south-west corner of the main island of Saint Vincent, in the parish of Saint George, and it is home to the country's main port and its biggest commercial centre. French settlers founded the town shortly after 1722, yet the island went on to spend 196 years under British rule before independence. Kingstown also guards a botanical treasure: a garden conceived in 1765, where William Bligh, famous from the mutiny on the Bounty, brought breadfruit seed around 1793. Let's climb into the hills and down to the harbour to explore.
Fort Charlotte
Photo: giggel · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsHigh above the harbour on Berkshire Hill stands Fort Charlotte, some 601 feet above the sea. The British began building it after retaking the island from the French in 1763, and it was finished by 1806, able to hold 600 troops and 34 guns. It was meant to guard against French attack, Carib unrest and slave rebellion, with the garrison holding out while the Royal Navy brought reinforcements. Turn around and take in the view: Kingstown, Young Island, Bequia and the Grenadines spread out below, and on a clear day you can even make out Grenada, 90 miles to the south.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens
Photo: John Frederick Miller 1759-1796 · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsStep through the gates into the oldest botanic garden in the Western Hemisphere, established in 1765. On 15 December that year, island commissioners were directed to set aside six acres of land as part of a steady plan to encourage botanical discovery and to grow useful plants for food, medicine and trade. Curiously, if the garden ever had a royal charter, it has never been found; its beginnings are known from letters between General Robert Melville and the island surgeon and botanist Dr George Young. Today it is one of the most visited places in the country, a landmark of national, regional and global significance.
Assumption Cathedral
Photo: giggel · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsLook at this extraordinary building. The Assumption Cathedral, also called St. Mary's, mixes Moorish, Romanesque, Byzantine, Venetian and Flemish styles, and it stands in striking contrast with the rest of the city. Its story begins with a first structure raised in stages from 1823, while the present church was completed in the 1930s. It became a co-cathedral in 1971, and since 1989 it has been the cathedral of the Diocese of Kingstown. Take a moment to pick out the different styles across its façade.
La Soufrière
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsNow let's head north to La Soufrière, the active volcano that crowns Saint Vincent. At 1,235 metres it is the highest point in the whole country, a stratovolcano with a crater lake, and the island's youngest and northernmost volcano. It has had eight recorded eruptions since 1718, and its latest activity began in December 2020 with a slowly growing lava dome, ending in explosive events in April 2021. In quieter times, hikers follow a trail up through the rainforest to the crater rim. The mountain is also an Important Bird Area, home to hummingbirds and the Saint Vincent amazon.
Fort Duvernette
Photo: madmack66 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsOut in the bay off Calliaqua, a dark tower of rock rises from the water. This is a basalt volcanic plug, 190 feet tall, and on its summit sit the ruins of Fort Duvernette, also known as Rock Fort. British Marines manned it to protect the anchorage, which was important for the sugar trade. Its two batteries sat one on the summit and one 40 feet down the slope. In 1795, during the Second Carib War, the fort and its garrison helped save survivors of a Carib attack on a British convoy. By 1878 it had no military purpose left, and in 1971 it passed to the National Trust.
Lomakuume
