View of the hill St. Jago with the fort Coenraadsburg
Caption:
Code: 0002 4055
Category: Castle St. George and the town of Elmina
View of the hill St. Jago with the fort Coenraadsburg, with on the right the so-called Herenweg, now Liverpool Street, in Elmina, seen from the Parade Ground across the river.
The fort Coenraadsburg was built by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, to guard the castle St. George. The Dutch themselves had seized St. George from the Portuguese in 1637 by means of an attack from St. Jago hill. The Herenweg (Liverpool Street) was developed from 1840 onwards as a street lined with large merchants' houses - built by merchants who were predominantly of Euro-African descent. Currently, many of these houses are in a state of disrepair. The street itself is an important thoroughfare for transport to and from the large fishing port nowadays situated on the river quay visible in the front.