Christiansted

Christiansted was founded in 1733 by Frederik Moth, the newly appointed Danish governor of St Croix, whose party cleared a site for Fort Christiansværn that September. On 8 January 1734, beside the fort, France formally handed the island to the Danish West India and Guinea Company. The town was named after King Christian VI. The company divided St Croix into plantations for sugar and cotton and set up a sugar refinery and distillery; by 1754 there were 7,566 enslaved people on the island and 83 white inhabitants in the town.

From the 1750s until 1871 Christiansted was the capital of the Danish West Indies, and St Croix had the richest economy of the three islands. Enslaved Africans built the town, giving it African as well as Danish influences in its design, and the company sold enslaved people at auction in its yellow-brick warehouse until the slave trade was outlawed in 1803. The young Alexander Hamilton lived here from 1765 before leaving for New York.

After emancipation in 1848 labour conditions remained harsh, and "Queen" Mary Thomas, one of the leaders of the 1878 Fireburn revolt, was later imprisoned in the town from 1887 to 1905. Its 18th-century waterfront core is now a national historic site. Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 hit hard: the town's population fell by almost 30 per cent between 2010 and 2020.

Christiansted's identity is bound up with its buildings — pastel stone houses with red tile roofs and cobblestone pavements, built by enslaved Africans and sometimes called one of the world's few "African-Danish" towns. The national historic site at its centre tells the story of the colony, from trade and plantations to slavery and emancipation.

The wider island culture is Crucian. Islanders debate who counts as a native Crucian, and the island's long history of migration from the eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico and beyond has shaped its music, food and speech. The Crucian Christmas Carnival, held over Christmas and New Year, is the island's largest festival, and the Agricultural and Food Fair in mid-February celebrates its farming. Several times a year a night-time street festival called Jump-Up fills Christiansted's streets.

The town is also an artists' base, with galleries, studios and jewellers along the boardwalk and the old streets. The comedian and pianist Victor Borge lived here for many years, the poet Audre Lorde died in the town, and the basketball player Tim Duncan was born here.

Christiansted had 1,770 people at the 2020 census, down by almost 30 per cent since 2010 after the 2017 hurricanes, though it remains the largest town on St Croix.

The town thrives on tourism. Jewellers making their own designs, galleries, boutiques, small hotels, many restaurants and several dive shops line the waterfront and the streets behind it, and the wharf gives easy access to dive sites on the north side of the island. Most islanders whose families go back generations work for the territorial government, while others are in tourism, law and medicine. The island's economy was badly hit when the large oil refinery shut down in 2012 with the loss of many jobs; agriculture has seen a slow revival as demand for local produce has grown.

Daily life follows the harbour — seaplanes landing, the ferry to Protestant Cay crossing back and forth, and fishing boats tying up beside the waterfront restaurants.

St Croix shares the cooking of the rest of the Virgin Islands. Fungi, pronounced "foon-gee", is a stiff cornmeal dish served with boiled fish or saltfish; callaloo, sometimes spelled kallaloo, is a soup of leafy greens; and paté, fried dough filled with beef, chicken, conch or saltfish and often compared to an empanada, and johnnycake, fried dough originally known as "journey cake", are the everyday snacks.

Fresh fish comes in at the docks beside the waterfront restaurants, where fishing boats tie up with the day's catch. The restaurants along the boardwalk mix local and American cooking, and there is a microbrewery on King's Alley Walk.

St Croix is a rum island, and rum distilled there is the base of many drinks served in town. Popular cold drinks include maubi, brewed from tree bark, sorrel, soursop, sea moss and passion fruit juice. The Agricultural and Food Fair each February celebrates the island's farming and food.