Destroyed by Invasion, Hurricane and Earthquake, Then Rebuilt: The Stories Behind Jamaica’s Great Churches

• A Gleaner feature traced four of Jamaica’s grandest church buildings
• Spanish Town’s cathedral site dates to 1525 and was rebuilt in 1714
• Holy Trinity Cathedral was destroyed in 1907 and rebuilt in 1911
• St James Parish Church was restored after the 1957 earthquake

Jamaica’s grandest church buildings have been lost and rebuilt more than once. In a 2025 feature for the Gleaner, Dr Lorenzo Gordon, a physician and heritage enthusiast, traced the histories of four of them.

The Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega in Spanish Town began in 1525 as La Iglesia de la Vega. It was destroyed during the British invasion of 1655 and again by a hurricane in 1712, and was rebuilt in 1714. Gordon called it “the oldest site of continuous worship in the Western Hemisphere.”

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston was first built in 1811. The 1907 earthquake destroyed it, and it was rebuilt by 1911. Its 85-foot copper dome is, in Gordon’s words, “unmatched in the English-speaking Caribbean.”

In Montego Bay, St James Parish Church was consecrated in 1782, and its Georgian building had to be restored after the 1957 earthquake. At Port Royal, St Peter’s Church was rebuilt in 1726 after the 1692 earthquake and holds artefacts including a silver communion set linked to the privateer Sir Henry Morgan. The feature did not include figures for what any of these rebuildings cost.

Taken together, the four buildings tell the same story: in Jamaica, a church building is never permanent. Earthquakes, hurricanes and war have each forced major reconstructions, and each time someone had to find the money and the materials to put the building back.

That history is worth remembering as congregations continue to repair damage from Hurricane Melissa. For the diaspora, whose families passed through these cathedrals for baptisms, weddings and funerals, they are shared national property. Their survival has always depended on rebuilding after disaster, and on people willing to pay for it.

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