Welcome To Montego Bay Cultural Centre
Town Hall
Contact us today to book the Town Hall for all your meetings and corporate events. Fully air-conditioned space with beautiful paintings and secure parking is also available on-site.
Museum
Visit us today to explore our incredible facility, where you can discover and experience our warm, welcoming Jamaican culture. Self-guided and curator tours are available.
Gift Shop
Our gift shop offers a wide selection of treats and gift ideas, allowing you to take a piece of Jamaica’s culture back home with you. Some items are locally handmade.
THE HISTORY OF MONTEGO BAY
Mobay, as this city is affectionately called, is the second largest city in Jamaica and the second largest anglophone city in the Caribbean. The city’s history traces back to pre-Colombian days when the Tainos referred to the bay as ‘El Golfo de Buen Tiempo’, or Fair Weather Bay. When the Spaniards conquered the Tainos, they started to refer to the now Montego Bay as ‘Bahia de Mantega’ because the port was used for large-scale exportations of pig’s lard.
THE HISTORY OF THE MONTEGO BAY CULTURAL CENTRE
The Montego Bay Cultural Centre played a significant role in the fight for Emancipation in Jamaica. The building, which has been in existence since 1803, was first used as a courthouse. The building hosted many trials for enslaved Africans and also hosted many ballroom events for the whites during the period of slavery
Enslaved Africans, including National Hero Samuel Sharpe, were tried in this very monumental building, which stands tall in Montego Bay. Following the massive Christmas Rebellion, full freedom came on August 1, 1838, and the Emancipation Act was read from the balconies of the now Montego Bay Cultural Centre.
Upcoming News & Events
Reviews
I visited the centre recently and was blown away by the friendly, helpful staff, especially the young lady at the front and the curators of the museum and gallery. The building is GORGEOUS and there is a feeling that comes over your when you enter like the ancestors’ spirits still roam the halls. It was an amazing experience. I hope to visit again soon!
— Janet Campbell
In my years living in Montego Bay, I never knew that building was so beautiful on the inside. WOW! Especially the gallery. My jaw dropped when I saw that beautiful ceiling and that amazing exhibit. The staff was also very knowledgeable and accommodating. Thanks so much for an unexpected experience.
— Jessica Brown
The Rastafari exhibit carried me through a roller coaster of emotion when I visited National Museum West recently. I never knew that Rastafarians went through so many hardships. I look at them now in a new light with a new level of respect. Thank Montego Bay Cultural Centre
— Becky Harrison
Welcome to the Montego Bay Cultural Centre’s Website!
It is a great pleasure of mine to greet you through this medium, and to also welcome you to the Montego Bay Cultural Centre website.
We have a very strong culture here in Jamaica. It is quite potent in its spread as it permeates national borders, infusing others with an essence that is so Jamaican that they often try to reflect us. Indeed, our way of life fuses into all we do and to a large part, determines how we interact socially, how we do business and educate our population.
Mayor of Montego Bay
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
Montego Bay Cultural Centre 