Port-au-Prince

The bay where Port-au-Prince stands was part of the Taíno chiefdom of Xaragua when Columbus arrived, and its people had vanished within three decades of Spanish rule. Buccaneers later used the shore as a base, and the filibusters set up a hospital on the Turgeau heights, so that the area long went by the name Hôpital. In 1749 the French colonial administration built a new town here, and in 1770 it replaced Cap-Français, today's Cap-Haïtien, as capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue.

After independence, when Haiti split between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the republic's capital under Alexandre Pétion, and it has been the national capital ever since. The National Palace, completed in 1920, the cathedrals and the iron market rose in the downtown area, while the elite moved up the hills to Pétion-Ville and the poor crowded into hillside slums and lowland districts such as Cité Soleil.

On 12 January 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the city. Most of the historic centre was destroyed, including the cathedral, the parliament, the Palace of Justice and several ministries; Haiti's government estimated the death toll at 230,000. The palace ruins were demolished in 2012 and have not been rebuilt. Since 2020 the capital has been paralysed by gang violence. In late February 2024 the city's two main gang alliances united as the Viv Ansanm coalition to coordinate attacks on police stations, government buildings and infrastructure, and the city remains at the centre of Haiti's crisis.

Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haitian art, whose vivid, densely patterned painting has an international following; Le Centre d'Art was at the heart of the movement and the naïve painter Gesner Abelard, born in the city, was associated with it. Artists and craftsmen in Bel Air make Vodou flags, and the iron sculptors of Noailles in nearby Croix-des-Bouquets cut and hammer recycled oil drums into sculpture. Bois Verna has one of the largest concentrations of the city's historic gingerbread houses, with their elaborately detailed decorative trim.

Music is everywhere: kompa is the dance music of parties and radio, and the capital's Kanaval, the country's biggest, has brought bands and costumed revellers through the streets before Lent, ending in front of the palace on the Champ de Mars. During Lent rara bands parade with bamboo vaksin trumpets and drums, and in July a smaller flower carnival has been held. In 2015 the celebrations were cut short nationwide after an accident during the parade killed 18 people.

Religious life mixes Catholicism, a fast-growing evangelical Protestantism and Vodou, which is officially recognised and practised by many. People of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian descent also have a large presence in the city. Kreyòl is the language of daily life and French that of the courts, ministries and elite schools, and greetings and courtesy carry real weight.

The commune of Port-au-Prince was estimated to have about 1.2 million people in 2022, and the wider metropolitan area — Delmas, Cité Soleil, Tabarre, Carrefour and Pétion-Ville among others — is far larger; recent estimates put it at around 3.7 million, nearly a third of all Haitians. Rapid unplanned growth up the hillsides makes any figure uncertain.

The capital holds the government, the main port, the ministries, the universities and much of the country's trade, but the economy has been crippled by years of crisis. Since 2020 armed groups have taken over much of the city — they have been estimated to control as much as 90 per cent of it, and the palace grounds downtown have been repeatedly threatened. Kidnapping, killings and sexual violence have driven many residents from their homes, and the hill commune of Kenscoff has faced repeated attacks since January 2025.

Where life continues, it revolves around small trade — market women, street vendors, tap-tap drivers and motorbike taxis — alongside churches, schools and family networks. The well-off live mostly in Pétion-Ville and the hills; most people live in crowded, informal districts with little access to public services.

Port-au-Prince eats the Creole food of the whole country, built on rice, beans, plantain and root vegetables. Diri ak pwa, rice and beans, is the everyday staple, and diri djon djon, rice cooked black with tiny local mushrooms, is made for special occasions. Griot — pork shoulder marinated in citrus and epis, a blend of herbs, garlic and peppers, then boiled and fried — is the celebrated dish, eaten with pikliz, a fiery pickled-cabbage relish, and bannann peze, flattened fried plantain.

Street food is a large part of city eating. Fritay, an assortment of fried snacks, is sold widely on the streets, and akasan, a thick corn drink spiced with anise and cinnamon, is widely drunk. Tasso, fried goat, and legim, a vegetable stew, fill out the table, and on 1 January Haitians eat soup joumou, the squash soup that marks independence and is on UNESCO's heritage list.

Pétion-Ville has many of the capital's bars and restaurants. Haitian coffee from the mountains and Barbancourt, a sugarcane rum double-distilled in the manner of cognac, are the drinks the country is proudest of.