Port-au-Prince City Map Poster

About Port-au-Prince

The city of Port-au-Prince is on the Gulf of Gonâve, a bay on the Atlantic Ocean. The bay was called "Gouanâoué" by the Arawak people, who settled it two thousand years ago. It was renamed by Christopher Columbus as "Porto Príncipe", and he established an early settlement which he abandoned in 1502 due to hostilities from natives and disease outbreak; his remains are buried at Fort Saint Louis in Saint-Pierre de la Martinique. In 1697, French colonists founded a new settlement at present-day Port-au-Prince after which it became capital of Haiti for 200 years (1749–1843). The city's layout is similar to that of an amphitheatre; commercial districts are near the water while residential neighborhoods are located on hillsides above with port facilities extending northward toward Cap Haitien along river valleys near mountainside cliffs.