San Nicolaas ( nl, Sint Nicolaas) is southeast of Oranjestad, and is

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 P ...

's second largest city. it has a population of 15,283, most of whom originate from the British Caribbean and rest of the Caribbean.

History

According to oral tradition, San Nicolaas was named after a Mr. Nicolaas van der Biest (1808–1873), who owned a big piece of the land there.Johannes Hartog. '' Aruba Past and Present: From the Time of the Indians Until Today''. D. J. DeWit; 1961. p. 152. Landowners were then addressed by their subordinates by their first names preceded by 'Shon' meaning 'master'. So he was called 'Shon Nicolas', as was the area. It is thought that the change from Shon Nicolas to San Nicolaas was due to the influence of Spanish. Many Afro-Arubans settled in San Nicolaas during the 1920s, attracted by the many jobs associated with the oil refinery.

Oil Refinery

Known as the island's Sunrise Side, San Nicolaas was once a bustling company town, when

Lago Oil and Transport Company Lago Oil & Transport Co. Ltd. had its beginning in 1924 as a shipping company carrying crude oil from Lake Maracaibo to its transshipment facility on the island of Aruba. History With the discovery of a vast amount of crude oil under Lake Mara ...

opened its oil refinery in 1924 until 1985 when

Exxon Corporation ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

closed it and began to dismantle the facility as well as the Colony. In 1991 Coastal Corporation reopened the oil refinery until 1995. It was then sold to Valero in 2004, and it was open for a number of years, and closed in 2009. In December 2010, Valero announced plans to reopen the refinery. The refinery later was purchased by

Citgo Petroleum Corporation Citgo Petroleum Corporation (or Citgo, stylized as CITGO) is a United States–based refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. Headquartered in the Energy Corridor area ...

, which transferred the property to the Government of Aruba in 2020. As of July 2021, plans to build a modern facility on the site had not gone forward.

Landmarks

The Nicolaas Store is a former book store in the centre of the city which has been converted into the Community Museum. Water Toren, San Nicolaas, ARUBA

Water Tower San Nicolas Water Tower San Nicolas (Dutch: ''Watertoren San Nicolas'') is a water tower and museum in San Nicolaas, Aruba. It was built in 1939 to relieve the water shortage in Aruba. In 1979, the tower became obsolete and in 1996, it was transferred to the m ...

was built in 1939 by the LMV (Landswatervoorziening) to help supply potable water to the community. The structure was restored in 2013, and became the site of the Museum of Industry. The Model Trains Museum is located at Koolbaaibergstraat 12. A section of San Nicolaas' main street has been converted to a picturesque

promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

with shops containing

souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

and local snacks. There are over 50 hand-painted murals in San Nicolaas. In nearby Seroe Colorado, there is a small natural bridge, not to be confused with the bridge at Andicuri. To view the bridge follow the road to its terminus, then hike approximately down old

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...

and

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

formations.

Baby Beach, known for its calm water and good snorkeling, is located south of San Nicolaas. The

San Nicolas Bay Reef Islands The San Nicolas Bay Reef Islands lie just off the south-eastern end of the island of Aruba, a constituent island nation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Dutch Caribbean, adjacent to the island's second largest city San Nicolaas, from wh ...

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

lies just off the coast from the town, and is an important site for nesting

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s. Close to San Nicolaas, a Dutch marine camp is off Commanders Bay near the fishing village of

Savaneta Savaneta is a town and region in southeastern Aruba. Until 1797, it was the island's capital city. It is home to the island's oldest surviving home, a 150-year-old ''cas di torto'', or mud hut. The Savaneta region has an estimated area of 27.76 s ...

Sports

* On August 22, 2010, San Nicolaas, Aruba, won the Senior League World Series in

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

. * The PaloMarga International Raceway hosts drag races.

Notable people

* Xander Bogaerts (1992), baseball player. *

Bobby Farrell Roberto Alfonso Farrell (6 October 1949 – 30 December 2010) was an Aruban dancer and singer. He was the male member of the 1970s pop and disco group Boney M. Biography Birth and early life Farrell was born and raised on the island of Arub ...

(1949–2010), singer and dancer.

References

San Nicholas
official Aruba tourism portal

External links

{{Authority control Populated places in Aruba