National Heroes Square (formerly Trafalgar Square) is located in the capital and principal commercial centre Bridgetown, on the island-nation of Barbados. The square lies along Upper Broad Street and is on the northern shore of the Careenage ("Constitution River"), found directly in the centre of Bridgetown.
A fixture of the Square on the west-end includes a bronze statue of Admiral Lord Nelson overlooking the Square. The statue in Bridgetown was erected unveiled on March 22. 1813 to commemorate the anniversary of the British Royal Navy's victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The local statue of Lord Nelson in Bridgetown was erected approximately 27 years before the more famous Nelson's Column which is located in London, England's Trafalgar Square. As a point of reference, Nelson has served as the decided upon centre of Bridgetown. During the colonial years many distances on the island from Bridgetown have historically been measured from the base of Nelson's statue.
The current name of National Heroes Square was adopted on 22 April 1999 and officially took effect on from 28th April, 1999.
In 2009 the David Thompson-Government opened up a proposal to rename the area as "Parliament Square". and to completely redevelop and reconfigure the Square's layout.
Famous quotes containing the words national, heroes and/or square:
“The American, if he has a spark of national feeling, will be humiliated by the very prospect of a foreigner’s visit to Congress—these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches, hypocritical, unctuous, and slovenly, are spotted also with the gravy of political patronage, these persons are a reflection on the democratic process rather than of it; they expose it in its process rather than of it; they expose it in its underwear.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“The Americans are certainly hero-worshippers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“O for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)