Champs de Mars

Port-au-Prince & Around


A series of parks split by wide boulevards that collectively make up the Place des Héros de l'Indépendence, with the former site of the demolished Palais National at its center, this broken heart of Port-au-Prince suffered greatly in the 2010 earthquake and, while better than it was, it's not somewhere you want to hang around.

Several statues of Haiti's founding fathers dot Champs de Mars: Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (on horseback), Alexander Pétion and Henry Christophe. The Marron Inconnu, the iconic statue of the unknown slave blowing a conch-shell trumpet, is also found here. It's odd to wander among the city's former main attraction, imagining it as a tent camp for thousands after the earthquake, and beholding it in its new state as a ghost town.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Port-au-Prince & Around attractions

1. Musée du Panthéon National

0.06 MILES

This modern, mostly subterranean history museum, set below gardens, hosts a permanent exhibition chronicling Haiti’s history, from the Taínos and slavery…

2. Grand Rue Artists

0.63 MILES

While most of Haiti’s artists are represented in the rarefied air of Pétionville’s galleries, a collective of sculptors and installation artists produces…

3. Maison Dufort

0.67 MILES

This recently restored gingerbread home is the first of its kind to be not only preserved by a nonprofit, but also opened to the public. The creamy-yellow…

4. Marché de Fer

0.7 MILES

Several of Haiti’s cities have iron markets, but Port-au-Prince’s is the original and the best. Constructed in 1889, the exuberant red-metal structure…

5. Barbancourt Rum Distillery

4.52 MILES

North of the airport and tucked among sugarcane fields, this famous rum distillery welcomes visitors occasionally and seemingly at random – don't make the…

6. Museum of the People

5.78 MILES

This small jumble of a museum attached to the mission is worth a stop on your way up to Kenscoff. There are taxidermied specimens of Haitian fauna …

7. Parc Historique de la Canne à Sucre

5.78 MILES

At the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution, the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac was one of the richest parts of St-Domingue. Little remains of this period, but one…

8. Fort Jacques

6.44 MILES

Fort Jacques was erected during the burst of fort-building following independence in 1804. It was built by Alexandre Pétion and named after Jean-Jacques…