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| Elmina Travel Guide Edit This The best resource for sights, hotels, restaurants, bars, what to do and see the making of kanoes (Elmina) the making of kanoes (Elmina) Ragna Meul Elmina is located approximately 15km west of Cape coast, in the Central Region. It's a small fishing village with a fort and a castle. It is a great place to relax, especially in the beginning of July, when the Bakatue festival is held. |
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| As well as all the other forts and castles at the costline of Ghana, Fort St
Jago and Elmina Castle have their origin in the colonial past of the
country: The fort was built by the Portuguese to protect the village they conquered from Dutch and English invaders. At that time, the Dutch owned Cape Cost castle and tried to conquer the whole coastline there. Elmina Castle was built for extra protection and as transport/stockage for slaves. The Dutch were not able to conquer Elmina from the sea, but by co-operation with the local inhabitants, they found a way over land to invade the fort from the back and suceeded. The Fort was renamed: Fort Coenraedsburg, and the castle was partly rebuilt. For more information, you might consider taking a guided tour through the castle. It's really worth it. And if you have time enough, it would be great to combine this visit with some other forts along the coast. Which are really not far away... _______Sights Edit This entry of St. George d'Elmina Castle entry of St. George d'Elmina Castle Urban Solutions (www.urban-solutions.nl) Castle St George d'Elmina On 19th January 1482, 600 men lead by Don Diego d'Azambuja arrived in Elmina in twelve ships from Portugal to build the George's Castle. The site was strategically chosen at the rough cliffs at the tip of a peninsula bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Benya lagoon, creating natural protection while providing sheltered anchorage. In its earliest form it was a small rectangular fortress, while the modern fort is estimated to cover at least ten times the surface of the original. The most important extensions took place in the mid 17th Century when the Dutch had gained possession of the Castle. In those days one could regard the castle as a small trading town, run as 'a ship at permanent anchor'. The castle grounds comprised living quarters, a chapel, an officer's mess, an auction hall and storage rooms all situated around an extensive courtyard. A limited number of soldiers and merchants would live there at any time, in addition up to 1,000 slaves would be kept in the slave dungeons awaiting the arrival of the next ship. Fort St. Jago It was from St. Jago Hill that the Dutch were finally successful in forcing a Portugese surrender in 1637. To prevent enemies from playing a similar trick on them, in 1666 they erected a fortified garrison post, named Fort Coenraadsburg, but commonly known as Fort St. Jago. This fort was used for military purpose only, it had no commercial warehouses, but contained quarters for officers and soldiers who came on rotation duty from the castle. Dutch Cemetery The old Dutch Cemetery in Elmina town dates back to 1806. Towards the end of the 18th century, the officials and merchants of Elmina Castle used the Garden ('de Tuin'), the green space north of the Benya Lagoon, for growing vegetables and fruit for the population and passing ships. Until then, the Europeans had buried their dead inside the castle or just outside the castle walls. Space was running out and in 1806 it was therefore decided to move the European cemetery into the Garden of Elmina. The cemetery is surrounded by a wall and number of big silk cotton trees, which are well over a century old. In the middle stand a vault with an obelisk on top, dating back to 1806 too, in which a number of former governors and eminent Elminans and the Elmina King, Nana Kobena Isyan are buried. Elmina Town Many tourist visit the UNESCO world-heritage list protected St. George's Castle and the Fort Coenraadsburg, the main cultural heritage attractions in the area. These historical buildings have played significant roles in the interaction of Elmina and Ghana with European countries. Other historic tourist attractions in the town such as St. Joseph's Catholic Church building, St. Anne's Convent, the Methodist Chapel, Asafo Posts, and numerous historic merchant houses, rarely feature on the tourist's itinerary but are also worth visiting. [Add Sight] St. Joseph Catholic Church Edit This Hi, I am looking for a priest by the name Rev. Fr. Peter Adoko-Enchill at St. Joseph Parish. Elmina, Ghana, West Africa. I mail him a letter in December 2006 and did not hear from him. Would like the phone number for St. Joseph Parish so I can call. Thank you for your help. Denise type: Churches and Cathedrals World66 rating: [rate it] email: denisecamilleri@msn.com ________History Edit This Over the years Elmina has played an important role on the crossroads between Africa and Europe and its development is therefore strongly linked to the development of European trade with West Africa. The Portugese initiated the development of Elmina as a regional commercial centre and a node in an international trading network when they commenced with the building of St. George Castle in Elmina in 1482. When the Dutch succeeded the Portugese in 1637, they made it their headquarters on the Gold Coast for the following three centuries. Originally, the European commercial interest in the Gold Coast was in the gold it produced, alongside products like pepper and ivory. By the end of the 17th century, a new type of trade was established on the Gold Coast: the trade in slaves for the plantations in the New World. Elmina became an important distribution point for the slaves, which were brought from the hinterland, to be shipped to the Americas. All through the 15th to 19th centuries, the town thrived on a host of economic activities, directly or indirectly related to the presence of the Europeans. The town became a bustling commercial centre, where fish and agricultural products were traded alongside a flourishing service industry providing transport, security, storage, as well as artisan activities like pottery and carpentry. The population of the town grew from several hundred people at the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century to roughly 20,000 in the mid-19th century. After the abolition of the slave trade by the Dutch government in 1814, the Dutch lost interest in the Gold Coast and Elmina, and minimised their presence. During the 19th century, they tried to enhance their income from Elmina by developing a gold mine and a cotton plantation, both of which failed. More successful was the recruitment exercise the government set up in the 1830s, to enlist African soldiers for service in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). Many returned after the Second World War and settled in Elmina, on what is now known as Java Hill. They brought back the techniques to make batiks, which are still very popular in modern Ghana. In 1872 the Dutch Government transferred all its possessions at the Gold Coast to the British. In Elmina, as in other places, this gave rise to public protest and guerrilla activities against the British, in which the Ashanti were also involved. Eventually the British grew tired of all these protests, and exiled the king of Elmina to Sierra Leone while locking up the Ashanti king in St George Castle. In June 1873 they bombarded the old town of Elmina, burning it to the ground completely. For almost a decade Elmina was a ghost town. The site of the old town was transformed into a parade ground and never rebuilt. From 1880 onwards, now part of the British Gold Coast Colony, the town came alive again, although it took more than a century before it regained the population level of the mid-19th century. In the 1920s money from gold and cocoa flowed into the town, and expectations of a new economic dawn returned. The typical 1920s-style colonial merchants' houses built in this period are still dominant in several parts of the Elmina townscape. Private initiatives to develop Elmina into an economic hub (undertaken between 1880 and 1920), including a railway connection to the mining and timber areas of the Western Region and the development of a modern harbour for intercontinental shipping, did not materialise. When Ghana gained independence from the British in 1957, Elmina was little more than a fishing town. Since then it has grown significantly in terms of population but a growth unmatched by employment. Many of the more prosperous families have left the town and live in Accra, Kumasi or overseas, and no longer invest much time and money in the town. What once was the heart of the West African Gold Trade has become one of Ghana's poorest towns. |
