Fort St. Jago

Fort St. Jago, also known as Coenraadsburg, is situated on a hill opposite Elmina Castle in the small town of Elmina in Ghana.

The first European building on this hill was a Portuguese church dedicated to St. Jago. In 1637 the Dutch used the hill as a gun-position to bombard and take Elmina Castle from the Portuguese. To prevent others from using the same tactic the Dutch build a fortified earthwork on the hill the next year.

In the 1660s the Elmina Castle Director General J. Valckenburgh replaced the earthen fortification with a permanent fort built out of local sandstone and called it Coenraadsburg. It compromised 2 strong landward bastions for defending the castle from land attacks and 2 smaller seaward bastions. The buildings inside the fort, surrounding a courtyard, housed a garrison of 69 soldiers. In 1671 the fort was strengthened with outer walls.

In 1880, 8 years after the Dutch had transferred the fort to the British, several modifications were carried out by the British to facilitate the use of the fort for civilian pursuits. In the 19th and 20th century the fort was used as a prison, a hospital and a rest house.

Well, to say I visited isn't exactly true. I visited Elmina Castle and viewed the fort from there. I didn't have the time nor the energy, due to the humid heat, to go up the hill and visit it. Too bad, maybe next time?

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