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Port-au-Prince

Capital of HaitiPort-au-Prince lies on the Gulf of Gonâve, a large bay on the western coast of Haiti that gives the city a natural harbour. Hills rise to the southeast of the city.

Why it's the capital

French colonial rulers founded the town in 1749, and in 1770 it replaced Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien) as the capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue. When Haiti won independence in 1804, Port-au-Prince became the capital of the new country.

Fun facts

  1. The name means "Prince's Port", and one theory says it comes from a ship called Le Prince that arrived in the area in 1706.
  2. The metal Iron Market was made in Paris to be a railway station in Cairo, but that plan fell through and it was brought to Haiti in 1891.
  3. In 1793 a French official renamed the city Port-Républicain, but Jacques I, emperor of Haiti, later changed the name back.

Finding it on the globe

Find the big bay that cuts into Haiti's west coast, with Gonâve Island in it. Port-au-Prince sits on the far eastern shore of that bay, southeast of the island.

Easy to mix up

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola. Port-au-Prince is in the western part, Haiti; Santo Domingo, on the south coast of the eastern part, is the Dominican capital.

Sources: Wikipedia: Port-au-Prince, Wikipedia: Iron Market, Wikipedia: Gulf of Gonâve, Wikipedia: Hispaniola