Fort De Veer

Fort De Veer – or, in the Dutch original, Veersche Schans – was a fortification which the Dutch built in Elmina, Ghana, between 1817 and 1829, about 800 metres west of Fort São Jorge da Mina, at a narrow, elevated point of the Elmina peninsula in the present-day town quarter of Bantoma. The fortification was named after Jakobus de Veer, the then Dutch director-general of Elmina. Today only traces of the works survive; six corroded cannons and some iron parts of gun mountings are preserved.

The Veersche Schans replaced the earlier fortification Waakzamheid ("Vigilance"), which was to protect Elmina from attacks from this side. The Veersche Schans was, as the Dutch name says, a square stone earthwork reached by ladders, with gun openings for muskets and artillery.

Machine-translated from “Fort de Veer” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort De Veer ranks #8,128 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #34 of the 34 mapped in Ghana. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Cape Coast, 12 km away. See how Ghana compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in German) ↗