Seville Great House

Top choice in Ocho Rios, Port Antonio & the North Coast


This historical park overlooking the sea, less than 1km west of present-day St Ann’s, marks the site of the first Spanish capital on the island – Sevilla la Nueva – and one of the first Spanish settlements in the Americas. It houses a fascinating great house, plantation remains and reconstructions of Taíno houses and African houses for the enslaved, along with their kitchen gardens.

When the English captured Jamaica from the Spanish, the land on which Sevilla la Nueva had been built was granted to an army officer, who developed a sugar estate here. The great house was originally built in 1745; on the lawn in front of the house there is a touching memorial to the enslaved Africans whose remains were discovered on the site and reburied here in 1997.

The restored house contains a truly excellent museum depicting the history of the site from Taíno times through the era of slavery and the colonial period. The everyday lives of the Jamaican Africans forced to work here are reconstructed with particular sensitivity; their experiences stand in stark contrast to the grandeur of the intricate stone architectural carvings from the Spanish period and the dainty bone china teacups of the British.

Traces of the original Spanish buildings, including a church and the castle-house of the first Spanish governor, are visible, along with the ruins of the English sugar mills and the overseer's house. This was also the site of the Taíno village of Maima; the inhabitants were forced to work as serfs under the Spanish encomienda (forced labor) system, and quickly died from a combination of disease, overwork and suicide.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Ocho Rios, Port Antonio & the North Coast attractions

1. Our Lady of Perpetual Help

0.45 MILES

Up the hill from the Columbus Monument is the exquisite Catholic church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, built in contemporary Spanish design by an Irish…

2. Columbus Monument

0.53 MILES

At the far west end of Main St, at the forgotten end of town, stands the Columbus Monument, a monumental traffic circle topped by a bronze figure of the…

4. Courthouse

0.89 MILES

At the corner of Market St is the courthouse, erected in elegant cut limestone and red brick in 1866, with a pedimented porch bearing the scales of…

5. Market

0.99 MILES

St Ann's Bay market gets busy on Fridays and Saturdays.

6. Marcus Garvey Statue

1.22 MILES

The grassy forecourt of the parish library on King St is dominated by the Marcus Garvey statue, with St Ann's Bay's greatest son portrayed larger than…

7. Laughing Waters

4.52 MILES

At Laughing Waters (also called Roaring River), by Mammee Bay, a river appears from rocks amid a shallow ravine about 3km from the sea and spills to a…

8. Cranbrook Rainforest Gardens

4.55 MILES

This vast botanical garden is a tranquil treat, crafted in the lush valley that carves up into the hills south of Laughlands, about 5km west of Priory…