Spaanse Water is a town on the island of

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

. It contains the tourist resort ''Nieuwpoort'', the village of ''Santa Barbara'', and the Tafelberg. Spaanse Water is a natural harbour and

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

located to the east of

Willemstad Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William I of the Netherlands, William Town, italic=yes) is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdo ...

. The lagoon contains several bays and little islands.

History

Spaanse Water was a strategically important location. In 1703, Fort Beekenburg was constructed on the Caracas Bay to protect the natural harbour and the back route to

. The fort was built by Nicolaas van Beek who at the time served as Director of Curaçao. It has been attacked several times by the French, English, and pirates, but has never been conquered. The fort used to be owned by Royal Dutch Shell, but since 2005, it is publicly accessible. Santa Barbara is a plantation founded in 1662, and was one of the oldest and largest plantations on the island. It was not very profitable, and sold in January 1875. The plantation was subsequently resold to John Godden in May 1875 who started a large scale

phosphate mine In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

on the terrain. In 1915, a calcium mine was added to the site. The mines are still active, and the mining company has estimated that the reserves will last until 2045. In 1927,

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 ...

built an oil terminal in Spaanse Water. The oil terminal closed in 2005. In the late 20th century, Spaanse Water developed into a tourist location. The resorts Nieuwpoort, Jan Thiel, and Santa Barbara Beach & Golf were established for the tourists.

References

Bibliography

* {{Commons category, position=left Lagoons of North America Populated places in Curaçao