Fort Coenraadsburg or Conraadsburg, also Fort São Tiago da Mina, is a small

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

chapel built in honor of Saint Jago and it is situated opposite the Elmina Castle in the Central region of Ghana, to protect Fort Elmina from attacks. Owing to its historical importance and testimony to the Atlantic slave trade, Fort Conraadsburg was inscribed on the

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in 1979 along with several other castles in Ghana.

History

Fort Conraadsburg was built in the 1660s. It was built on the site of a fortified chapel that the

had built and that the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

had burned to the ground in the Battle of Elmina (1637). The

ceded the fort to

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in 1872, together with the entire Dutch Gold Coast. Before the fort was built, the

used the hill as a gun-position to bombard the Portuguese in the year 1637. To prevent others from doing the same tactic against the

, the Dutch constructed a fortified earthwork the following year

Features

In the 1660s, the then Elmina Castle Director General J. Valckenburgh changed the earthen fortification with a permanent fort made up of local sandstone and named it ''Coenraadsburg''. The fort was built mainly for military purposes so it had no commercial warehouses. The fort was well-garrisoned so the

used it as a prison for

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an convicts and also as a disciplinary institution for their officers who are disobedient to their laws. Ever since the fort was transferred from the

to the British, they modified the fort for the easy use of it for civilian pursuit. In recent years, the fort has been used as a prison, a hospital and a rest house. The fort currently in a good condition, is used as an inn and a restaurant. The fort opening hours are 9:00am to 4:30pm.

Gallery

File:GRAMBERG(1861) p113 KASTEEL ST.GEORGE EN FORT COENRAADSBURG TE ELMINA.jpg, Fort Coenraadsburg (published 1861) File:Fort Conraadsburg.jpg, View of Coenraadsburg from Elmina File:Fort st jago elmina ghana.jpg, Fort Coenraadsburg File:Fort St. Jago (1 of 3).jpg, Fort St. Jago File:Fort St. Jago - Elmina - Ghana (4721617794).jpg, Fort St. Jago

References

External links

3D model, of Fort Saint Jago
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1652 History of Ghana Castles in Ghana Dutch Gold Coast Elmina 1652 establishments in Africa 1652 establishments in the Dutch Empire Coenraadsburg