Sans-Souci Palace
— — the kingdom the earthquake half-remembered.
Not only on a wall.
“The ruined royal palace of Henri Christophe, finished in 1813 and left roofless after the 1842 earthquake that flattened northern Haiti. The shell still climbs the hillside above Milot in pink and ochre stone, terraces stepping down to a fountain court. From the upper level the Citadelle Laferrière is visible on the next ridge. UNESCO has held the site since 1982.
Sans-Souci Palace, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Sans-Souci sits in the hills above Milot, about twenty kilometres south of Cap-Haïtien on Haiti's north coast. The palace was built between 1810 and 1813 as the royal residence of Henri Christophe, who declared himself king of northern Haiti in 1811 after the country's independence from France. The site sits at the foot of the Bonnet à l'Évêque mountain, on whose summit Christophe also raised the Citadelle Laferrière. UNESCO inscribed Sans-Souci, the Citadelle and the Ramiers site together as the National History Park in 1982, Haiti's first World Heritage listing.
The palace was built of locally quarried limestone and brick, finished in pink, ochre and white plaster, with terraces, a grand staircase, formal gardens and a piped fountain court that drew water from a mountain spring through a stone-lined channel. Christophe modelled the layout on European court architecture, in part to assert the new kingdom's standing on the world stage. The 7 May 1842 earthquake, which destroyed Cap-Haïtien, brought down the roofs and most interior floors. What remains is the masonry shell, three storeys at its tallest, slowly being stabilised by Haitian conservators.
The palace is open daily, generally 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a modest admission fee bundled with the Citadelle ticket. The dry months from November through March are easiest underfoot; the rainy season makes the steep approach slippery. The site is reached by a paved road from Cap-Haïtien to Milot, then on foot or by horse up the final climb. Local guides at the entrance are part of the visit, and the small site museum is worthwhile. The Citadelle Laferrière on the ridge above is the obvious second stop.