St. George's

St. George's is the capital of Grenada, on the southwest coast of the island around a horseshoe-shaped harbor in an old volcanic crater. Its red-roofed houses climb the hills above the Carenage, the inner harbor where fishing boats and schooners tie up.

The French founded the town in 1650, when Jacques Dyel du Parquet, the governor of Martinique, colonized the island. A first settlement on the eastern edge of the harbor suffered from floods and fever, so a new town was laid out beside the fort on the promontory. When Grenada was ceded to Britain in 1763, the town was renamed St. George's after the patron saint of England, and the fort became Fort George after King George III. After fires in the 1770s the town was rebuilt in brick and stone, with roofs of red fish-scale tiles brought as ballast on ships from Europe.

Nutmeg and mace, the red lace that covers the nutmeg seed, are the spices that gave Grenada the name Spice Isle, and they are graded and shipped from the port of St. George's. Cocoa from the estates of the island is also exported, and the Grenada Chocolate Company makes bars from local beans. Cruise ships dock at the terminal beside the Carenage.

The Sendall Tunnel, cut through the hill in the 1890s, links the Carenage with the market square on the other side of the town. Grand Anse Beach, a long white sand beach south of the town, faces the harbor. The Underwater Sculpture Park at Molinere Bay, created by Jason deCaires Taylor, sets concrete figures on the sea floor for snorkelers and divers. Spicemas, the carnival of Grenada, fills the streets with steel bands and calypso every August.