The European-styled gardens once belonged to Huntington Hartford's private estate but were then bought by the One & Only Club. It is 75 feet wide and is structured with multiple terraces. Many of the statues in the garden are from the 12th century bought by Hartford from an estate in California. The gardens were set up in 1962 by Jean Castre-Manne. At the top of the gardens is a French cloister, or walkway that was part of a convent. It was built as part of an Augustinian monastery and shipped to U.S. Hartford took the pieces and arranged them for his garden. A beautiful statue called Silence stands in the middle, as shown below.
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| Silence |
Next we stopped at Parliament Square (History). It has lovely pink-and-white colored buildings that provide meeting places for the Bahamas' government. The buildings were built in the 18th and 19th centuries and modeled after the North Carolinian architecture in New Bern. They were build by North Carolinians who moved to the Bahamas because of their loyalty to the British government. The three buildings include the House of Assembly, the Supreme Court building, and the Senate Building.
The House of Assembly is where the Prime Minister of the Bahamas and Parliament - comprised of the Senate and House of Assembly - meet. The debates are open to the public if they desire to attend.
The Supreme Court Building, which was built in 1921, has the judges in session dress with the traditional British attire - the iconic wigs and robes. The Senate Building also has a statue of Queen Victoria in the front, built in 1905.
We also visited the Garden of Remembrance. It contained a monument to the Bahamian soldiers that died in World War I and World War II. There was also a memorial to four Bahamian marines that died in the sinking of the HMBS Flamingo ship in 1980.
We gravely reflected on the sacrifice these soldiers made. We returned home at around 3:30 and stayed in the hotel the remainder of the day.
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