MUST SEE: ๐ง๐ฒ Town of St George & Related Fortifications, Bermuda
The Town of St George, once the Capital of Bermuda, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.ย In 1609, a British ship, the Sea Venture, was bound for Jamestown, Virginia when they encountered a storm which set them on a reef.ย Following the 1609 shipwreck, the surviving crew built two new ships, Deliveranceย andย Patience, and most continued their voyage to Jamestown, Virginia.ย Supposedly three of the Sea Venture crew were left on the island to mingle with Spanish and Portugese New World explorers who had also ‘found’ the reef in previous ocean voyages.ย Three years later, in 1612, the English trading company, the Virginia Company, returned and laid claim to the island.ย In 1612, the Town of St. George was founded by the Brits courtesy of the Virginia Company.ย Today, Bermuda is an Overseas Territory of Great Britain and the Town of St. George stands as an prime example of the earliest English urban settlement in the New World.ย According to UNESCO: “Its associated fortifications graphically illustrate the development of English military engineering from the 17th to the 20th century, being adapted to take account of the development of artillery over this period.”ย After the American Revolution Great Britain made St. George its main New World Naval Base.ย Their military fortifications have been reconstructed and strengthened over and over again over the last four centuries.
The architecture in Town is unique and has changed little since the 17th century so it appears frozen in time.ย Bermuda is fringed by coral reefs and sits in the North Atlantic so the buildings in St. George are generally less than two stories and constructed to withstand hurricanes.ย They are white-washed soft limestone that are designed with gentle pitched roofs and gutters to collect water in cisterns as water sources are scarce on the island.ย 40% of the structures in Town were built before 1800 lending the Town a very historic feel.
