Kurá Hulanda Museum is an

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...

museum located in the Kura Hulanda Village district of

Willemstad Willemstad ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the cap ...

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

. The museum teaches about 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 ...

, and African history in the Carribean, and was opened in April 1999 by Jacob Gelt Dekker.

History

The Kurá Hulanda Museum was an initiative of Dutch entrepreneur Jacob Gelt Dekker. In the late 1990s, he was approached by the Government of Curaçao to develop the western quayside in

Otrobanda Otrobanda is one of the historic quarters of Willemstad, located at the southwest side of the city, in Curaçao, a Lesser Antilles island in the Dutch Caribbean. Otrobanda was founded in 1707, and has been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site. ...

where historically the slave ships arrived with slaves to be sold at the nearby

slave market A slave market is a place where slaves are bought and sold. These markets are a key phenomenon in the history of slavery. Asia Central Asia Since antiquity, cities along the Silk road of Central Asia, had been centers of slave trade. In ...

. Dekker decided to buy the derelict buildings on the quay and market, restore the buildings to their original condition, and open a museum at the site specialising in the

and African history in the Caribbean. The museum opened in April 1999. It consists of 15 buildings, covering an area of 16,000²ft displaying the history from the capture in Africa to the relocation in the Americas. It also displays the cultural heritage of the slaves on the culture of Curaçao in particular and the Caribbean in general.

Hotel

Dekker bought most of the buildings on the hillside, and opened the luxury Kurá Hulanda Hotel & Lodge next to the museum. The hotel was declared

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in October 2013. In 2019, the hotel was purchased by BMG management, and they took over the hotel in 2021. The hotel was closed for a year fir refurbishment, although the museum remained operational during that time. Sadly Dekker died in 2019 before the sale was completed.

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kura Hulanda Museum Anthropology museums Buildings and structures in Willemstad Museums in Curaçao Slavery museums