Rancho is a former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad,

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

. In the late 20th century, it was annexed by Oranjestad.

History

Rancho was first mentioned in 1855 as a fishing village with small huts located in the vicinity of the Oranjestad The village had a little harbour where ships used to anchor for Oranjestad. In 1928, Arend Petroleum Maatschappij, a subsidiary of

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

, opened an oil refinery near Rancho which resulted in a population increase and the construction of stone houses. Rancho and Oranjestad merged into a single urban area, and in the late 20th century it was annexed. In order to preserve the village characteristics, buildings are limited to a height of five metres unless an exception is granted. Rancho has become an impoverished part of the city. On 20 April 2010, the Rancho Foundation was established to preserve the former fishing village.

Overview

Rancho is home the only remaining

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take p ...

of Aruba. It was built in 1892 and had been in operation until 1949. It was restored in 1970, and has been declared a monument. In 1905, Hendrik Eman was given permission to lay pipes from the water wells in Saliña and Madiki to the harbour of Oranjestad. Excess water was stored in a water tank in Rancho, and sold to the inhabitants of the city. In 2020, a program began to conserve the water tank as an early industrial heritage site. The National Archaeological Museum Aruba is located in Rancho, and the

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

has a stop in Rancho.

Notable people

* Boy Ecury (1922–1944), World War II resistance fighter * Nydia Ecury (1926–2012), writer and actress

References

{{authority control Oranjestad, Aruba Populated places in Aruba