The shaded green at the heart of Castries was called Columbus Square until 1993, when it was renamed for the Saint Lucian poet Derek Walcott on the occasion of his Nobel Prize in Literature. Bronze busts of Walcott and the economist Sir Arthur Lewis — Saint Lucia's two Nobel laureates, a remarkable haul for an island of 180,000 — stand under the trees.
The square is the obvious place to sit on a bench and watch Castries go about its day. The library, the Cathedral, and several surviving wooden colonial buildings overlook it. The great saman tree in one corner is several hundred years old and has weathered the city's many fires.