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About the product

Elmina Castle
Ghana



Location Guide

Elmina or St Georges Castle, is the oldest European building in Ghana.



Elmina exited as a town before this, and was a tribal capital. Probably selects as the lagoon could be used to produce salt.

The name comes from the Arabic el mina meaning the harbour.

It was the first European slave-trading post in all of sub-saharan Africa. Located on the western coast of present-day Ghana, it was originally built to protect the gold trade. It was much smaller rectangular fortress than the castle we see today, which today covers around 10 times the area of the first one.

The Portuguese first arrived in 1471 to buy gold. Elmina castle was built in 1482 by Portuguese traders as the castle of St George. within 5 years a number of traders were based here and Elmina was given city status by the king of Portugal. it was the centre of Portuguese operations for over 150 years.

In August 1837 the nearby St Jago hill was taken by the Dutch, who then pounded the castle with canons. The resulting Portuguese surrender, ended Portuguese influence in West Africa.

Shortly after its capture, by the Dutch, it was greatly expanded it and continued the expansion, and they built, in 1665, a second fort on St Jago hill, so no one could repeat the attack they had made upon the castle.

Following its capture by the Dutch in 1637, it came to serve the Dutch slave trade with Brazil and the Caribbean. What had been a central chapel for the Portuguese became the auction room to sell slaves under Dutch ownership. Today this houses a museum and display boards showing the history.
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