Fort Frederiksborg, later Fort Royal, was a Danish-Norwegian and later English fort on the Gold Coast in contemporary

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. It was built in 1661, with the approval of the King of Fetu, a few hundred yards from

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle () is one of about forty slave fort, "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or Factory ( ...

, which was at that time in Swedish hands, on Amanfro Hill. Along with several other castles and forts nearby, Fort Frederiksborg was inscribed on the

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

in 1979 because of its testimony to European economic influence on West Africa and the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

History

Frederiksborg was a small fort from which Cape Coast Castle could easily be bombarded. It functioned for a short time as the headquarters of the

Danish West India Company The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the ...

on the

Danish Gold Coast The Danish Gold Coast ( or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was coloni ...

, before it was moved to

Christiansborg Castle Christiansborg Palace (, ) is a palace and government building on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament (), the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. Also, s ...

in Osu. In 1665 the English

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of Eng ...

took over

and reinforced it to use it as their new headquarters. The Danes had little use of their fort. The fort was first pawned to the English in 1679 before it was finally sold to them in 1685. The English reconstructed the fort in 1699 and renamed it ''Fort Royal''. They soon abandoned it again, however.

References

Sources

* {{coord missing, Ghana Buildings and structures completed in 1661 Danish Gold Coast Castles in Ghana 1661 establishments in Africa 17th-century establishments in the Danish colonial empire Frederiksborg