iron market

President Florvil Hyppolite was credited for many infrastructure accomplishments during his short government in Haiti. One of them is the establishment of telephone lines. He also created a diligent Ministry of Public Works, under which Haiti's famed Iron Market was built.

Haiti's famed Iron Market has received some reasonable amount of press in the last few months due to the timely renovation of the historical attraction. What hasn't garnered equal fame is the Market's founder, President Louis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite. President Hyppolite was born in Cap Haitian in March of 1828 and became the leader of the country after defeating and overthrowing Legitime. What we will remember today, however, is not Hyppolite's birth, not his Iron Market, not his rise to power, but rather, his Panama Hat.

Many Haitians took this as a sign of his impending death. There were tales of strange objects, such as a cock's head and a dried human liver, being found sewn into his coat. His persona as a ruthless man, as well as the President of Haiti, meant that rumors of poisoning also abounded. Whatever the true cause of his death, the song that immortalizes it, ending with the line, "Whoever wants can go 'head and pick it up for me," has kept up throughout Haitian history.

Permalink | Comments

This is a picture of Denis O'Brien, CEO of Digicel and the Irish billionaire who donated 12 million for the project of renovating the Iron Market or Marche en Fer.

Marche Hyppolite was built in the 19th century and the plan was not to build a Marche. The French engineers made this structure to be used in Cairo, Egypt as a railway station

Permalink | Comments

Here is a pictur of the iron market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This market has a log history and was renovated by the CEO of Digicel Mobile telephone company

Permalink | Comments