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.

Construction worker Bernadin Blaise sits with fellow Milot resident Ramsès Etienne on a cannon at Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
A construction worker hammers a nail into a wooden plank during rehabilitation work at Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
A man rides a horse down the hill after leaving Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
A station in Milot, where visitors can hire horses to travel up the hill leading to Citadelle Laferrière, as seen in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
Engineer Jean Hérold Pérard, who oversees the paraseismic and rehabilitation project, speaks on the phone at Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.

Visitors and Milot residents gather near the cannons at Citadelle Laferrière on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
A skyway bridge under construction inside Citadelle Laferrière, part of the ongoing rehabilitation project, photographed on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
A horsekeeper poses beside his horse at Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.
Construction workers build scaffolding at Citadelle Laferrière in Milot on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, later used to reinstall a gallery inside the monument. Photo by Onz Chéry/The Haitian Times.

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