Citadelle Laferrière: Government agency facelifts the Haitian historic beauty | PHOTOS

MILOT, Haiti —  Bernadin Blaise still remembers when vegetation covered the walls and cannons of Citadelle Laferrière during his childhood in the 1980s. “It looked dirty,” he recalls.

Now in his 40s, Blaise sat atop one of the light-brown cannons on a December afternoon, pointing with pride toward the massive stone fortress rising 2,990 feet above sea level in Milot, a northern commune about 12 miles south of Cap-Haïtien.

Under the sunlight, the brown stone of the 205-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site glowed. Blaise said the Citadelle’s cleaner appearance reflects decades of maintenance and restoration carried out by residents employed through the Institute for the Safeguarding of National Heritage (ISPAN), the government agency responsible for protecting and preserving historic sites. The agency’s restoration and preservation work has been ongoing, on and off, for the past 40 years.

Overseen by the Ministry of Culture, ISPAN’s current project at the Citadelle focuses on rehabilitation and paraseismic reinforcement— work that began in September 2025 and is expected to continue through March. Once completed, the project will allow visitors to move between rooms using newly installed skyway bridges, expanding access within the fortress while strengthening its structural integrity.

“You thought the Citadelle was beautiful,” Blaise told a fellow Milot resident seated beside him on the cannon. “Wait until you see it when we’re done.”

Below are images from the site showing construction crews in action, along with scenes of residents, visitors and daily life around the Citadelle during its rehabilitation.

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