Spanish influences
When Christopher Columbus landed on Jamaica in 1494, it didn’t take long for sturdy, Spanish-style buildings to appear.
Take plantation houses like Halse Hall in Clarendon for instance – it’s a huge, two-storey house with thick walls that doubled as a defence.
In 1534 the Villa de la Vega grew into the Spanish capital of the island, and has since become the oldest continuously-inhabited city in Jamaica. The town was modelled after New Seville and includes the Governor’s residence, assembly house and military barracks, centred around a large plaza.
When the English captured the island in 1655, they opted to keep the area as the capital and renamed it Spanish Town – adding their own style of buildings too, and changing to a grid layout – until Kingston was given capital status in 1872.