Cape Coast castle

One of the most famous castles during the slave trade in Ghana is the Cape Coast Castle. It began as a trade lodge constructed by the Portuguese in 1555. It is situated in Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana.

The Cape Coast Castle and other forts and castles along the Gold Coast protected important ports of the European-African Gold and Ivory trade and later became centres of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.

History

‘Cabo Corso’ meaning ‘short cape’ is the original Portuguese name given to the local settlement within which its trade lodge was built. Later, the name was corrupted to ‘Cape Coast’, and has since been the accepted name of the Central Regional capital.

The Swedes, however, were the initiators of the permanent structure presently known as Cape Coast Castle. They built a fort in 1653 and named it Carlousburg, after King Charles X of Sweden.

Dutch occupation commenced in 1660. Finally, the British fleet, led by Captain Holmes, conquered the fort in 1665 and by 1700, had upgraded it into a castle.

Colonial rivalry between England and France peaked in 1757 during the Seven Years’ War. A French naval squadron bombarded Cape Coast Castle, leaving it badly damaged, and after 1760, the English reconstructed the castle entirely - with more durable materials and an improved sea defence system. 

The English retained control of the Castle into the late 19th century. After 1807, trade centred on precious metals, ivory, corn and pepper. In the eighteenth century, the castle’s role altered, as it became the centre of European education in Ghana.

The Cape Coast Castle has served as the West African headquarters of the president of the Committee of Merchants; the seat of the British governor; and a school. The Castle served as the head of English administration of the Gold Coast until 1877, when the colonial government moved its headquarters to the Christiansborg Castles in Accra. 

Restoration

The castle was first restored in the 1920s by the British Public Works Department.

In 1957, when Ghana became independent, the castle came under the care of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. In the early 1990s the building was restored by the Ghanaian Government, with funds from the United Nations Development Programme, United States Agency for International Development, with technical assistance from the Smithsonian Institution and other NGOs.

Today the Castle is a designated UNESCO World Heritage, open to the public from 9am to 4:30pm daily.