Nominations in for Port Royal to be inscribed on World Heritage List

The nomination process for the inscription of the archaeological site of Port Royal on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List is currently under way.

Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 when a large portion of the town fell into the sea, and about 2,000 people died as a result of the tremor.

“The archaeological site of Port Royal, including terrestrial and underwater, are currently going through UNESCO’s World Heritage nomination,” says Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange.

She was speaking at the 65th anniversary church service of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT), held on Sunday, December 10, at the East Queen Street Baptist Church in Kingston.

This is the first event of a year-long celebration to mark the JNHT’s milestone.

The second was a banquet on Monday, December 11, at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston.

Minister Grange said that a file containing the management plan, maps and other important information supporting the nomination will be submitted at the end of this month.

“The final submission of the nomination is to be done at the end of January in 2024, when we will know if that site will be declared by UNESCO,” she said.

Grange says Port Royal is the first of its kind to be placed on the World Heritage List of 17th-century English settlement underwater archaeological sites, adding that Jamaica has other sites on the World Heritage tentative list.

“We are looking at the Cockpit Country and the Seville Heritage Park Museum,” she said.

Jamaica’s first World Heritage site, the Blue and John Crow Mountains, was inscribed to UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 3, 2015.

Turning to the work of the JNHT, Minister Grange said that the organisation has stamped its presence on the Jamaican political and cultural landscape, to the benefit of the Jamaican people.

“From its early beginnings in 1958, it has been 65 years of toil and sweat, of vision and mission, of archaeological gigs and public exhibitions, and also some duppy stories,” she said.

The minister reminded senior citizens about the importance of talking to children about Jamaica’s heritage.

“We must be faithful in telling our stories, faithful to the truth, and faithful to the God, who has given us a great heritage,” she added.

JIS