Spanish Town — Spanish Town Map Poster & Print

המפה

Spanish Town Map Poster & Print

Spanish Town was founded by the Spanish in the sixteenth century as Villa de la Vega and served as the capital of Jamaica until 1872, when the seat of government moved to Kingston. Its old centre is a tight grid laid out beside the Rio Cobre, and from above it still looks like a planned colonial town, with straight streets meeting at right angles around a large open square.

That square, now known as Emancipation Square, is framed by Georgian buildings, including the old House of Assembly and the ruins of King's House. A short walk away stands the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega, often described as the oldest Anglican cathedral outside England. On the edge of the old town, the cast-iron bridge across the Rio Cobre, prefabricated in Britain and erected around 1801, is among the oldest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

A Spanish Town map poster captures the historic grid alongside the newer estates and highways that have grown around it toward Kingston and Portmore. The river runs along one side, the square sits at the heart, and the regular blocks spread out from it in a way that makes the town's age legible even to someone who has never visited.