The former pirate city is reached via a thin spit of land called Palisadoes, which protects Kingston Bay and also serves Norman Manley International Airport. The city was founded in 1656, one year after the English defeated the Spanish who had neglected the area. The memory of one man, the terrible pirate Henry Morgan, hangs over this former Babylon of the Caribbean. Sixteen hurricanes, nine earthquakes, three fires and a tropical storm... it took a lot of tenacity for the "most depraved city in Christendom" to make it through the centuries from the 17th to the present! Today, this den of miscreants from another time is a charming little fishing village of some 2,000 souls, slumbering in the tropical torpor. The small downtown area, although picturesque, is in a sorry state of repair and only Fort Charles, well preserved and maintained, offers a historical trace that cannot be ignored.Numerous projects to rehabilitate the site of Port Royal have been proposed, from amusement parks to luxury tourist complexes, only to be promptly forgotten by successive governments. The sunken city is one of the most valuable underwater archaeological sites in the world. Two thirds of the seventeenth century city are within a few hundred meters of the shoreline; but until now, the sites have been protected from curious divers and have only been the subject of very sporadic official research. Port-Royal organizes a festival every year, on the third Monday of October. It is an opportunity to taste seafood and listen to music.

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Fort Charles. Jamaica Tourist Board
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