Giddy's House: a "drunken" unique object in the Caribbean (9 photos + 1 video)

On the grounds of Fort Charles in the Jamaican town of Port Royal stands a building locally known as the "Drunken House."





Half-buried in the sand and tilted at almost 45 degrees, this structure became one of the few silent witnesses to the devastating Kingston earthquake of 1907. The earthquake not only rocked Jamaica's capital but also wiped the legendary "sin city" of Port Royal off the face of the earth.



Located at the entrance to Kingston Harbor in southeastern Jamaica, Port Royal was once known as the pirate capital of the Caribbean. Here, English and Dutch privateers, along with freebooters, squandered their loot at cards, enjoying the embraces of prostitutes and the contents of bottomless barrels of rum, earning the city the grim title of "the most immoral place on Earth."





The Age of Exuberance began shortly after the British recaptured the island from the Spanish in 1655. To secure their new possessions, the English governor invited pirates to Port Royal, issuing them official letters of marque to attack Spanish ships and settlements. The strategy was so successful that Spain was forced to defend its possessions forever, no longer considering recapturing the lost lands.



Port Royal itself flourished. From 1655 to 1692, it grew faster than any other English-founded city in the New World. At its peak, 6,500 people lived there, and around 2,000 buildings were erected. Residents flaunted their wealth, indulging in all manner of vices, and the place became firmly known as a den of lawlessness and impiety.



In 1692, a powerful earthquake shook Jamaica, and the ensuing tsunami engulfed a significant portion of Port Royal. What remained after the flood was destroyed by another earthquake 15 years later.



The second earthquake was so devastating that the sandy foundation beneath the city liquefied, literally flowing into the harbor, and not a single upright structure remained in Port Royal.



The "Drunken House" was built in 1888 as a Royal Artillery building on the grounds of Fort Charles. This fort, built by the British immediately after the capture of the island in 1655, is one of the oldest in the region.



Located at the western end of the Palisados ​​Strip, it had already suffered damage in the 1692 earthquake, but the true disaster came in the 1907 earthquake. Many of the fort's cannons sank forever into the sand, entire sections disappeared, and the Artillery House tilted and half-settled into the ground, becoming that very special landmark.



After a series of disasters, Port Royal spent its last years as a British naval station, and today it is just a modest fishing village, preserving the memory of its sinful and turbulent history.