Header Photo - at Fort William, Cape Coast
Between 1482 and the late eighteenth century, six European powers built forts and castles along this coast: Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Britain and Brandenburg-Prussia. They were trading posts first, garrisons second, and slave depots third — in that order historically, though the third is what most of them are remembered for. Gold, ivory and pepper came before people did.
Almost none of them stayed in one set of hands. Elmina was Portuguese for 155 years, Dutch for 235, then British. Cape Coast passed through Swedish, Danish, Dutch and British control before the British made it the seat of the Gold Coast administration. Forts changed owners by siege, by treaty, by purchase and occasionally by bankruptcy — and the local rulers whose permission the Europeans needed to build in the first place were rarely passive in any of it. The Komenda Wars of the 1690s were fought over exactly this.
What survives today is uneven. A few sites are properly maintained and interpreted. Others are shells, or private houses, or foundations under a fishing beach. Most sit in ordinary working towns rather than heritage precincts, which is part of why so few visitors see more than the two famous ones. The pages below cover all of them we have been able to document, in the order the Europeans arrived — and each links to a dedicated site with the full history and photographs.
Ghana-Net.com · Heritage & History
Around forty European forts once stood along 500 kilometres of this coast — the densest concentration of military architecture anywhere outside Europe. They were built to hold gold. They ended up holding people. This is the complete guide, fort by fort, with a dedicated site for almost every one.
The forts of Ghana are inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the listing is unusual: it covers not one monument but a chain of them, built between 1482 and the nineteenth century by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Danish, Swedish and Brandenburg Prussians. Some changed hands five or six times.
They were not built for the slave trade. They were built for gold — this was the Gold Coast, and Elmina exists because Portugal wanted a fortified warehouse for it. The dungeons came later, when the Atlantic trade in people became more profitable than the trade in metal. That sequence matters, because it explains the architecture: rooms designed for storage, repurposed for human beings, with no provision made for them at all.
Two of these sites — Cape Coast and Elmina — receive most of the world's attention and are properly presented. The rest range from partially restored to actively collapsing. Some are private homes, one is a prison, several are ruins in the surf. We cover all of them, because the story is not only the two that made the guidebooks.
Castle rather than fort means scale and permanence: a seat of government, not an outpost. Ghana has three, and between them they held this coast for four and a half centuries.
The oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa, begun in 1482 after Diogo de Azambuja negotiated with Kwamina Ansa. Portuguese, then Dutch from 1637, then British. The dungeons, the Door of No Return, and the church the Dutch built directly above the holding cells.
Begun by the Swedes, taken by the Danes, then the Dutch, then the British — who made it the seat of the Gold Coast administration. The largest slave-holding dungeons on the coast, and the site most diaspora visitors come for.
Built by the Danes, and the seat of government of independent Ghana until 2013. Nkrumah worked here; so did every leader after him. Access is restricted and changeable — check before travelling to it.
Portugal arrived first and left least — Elmina, and a small trading post at Accra that almost nobody knows about. The Dutch took Elmina in 1637 and spent the next two centuries holding the central coast against everyone. Their forts are the best-built here, and several are still standing because of it.
The first European trading post in the Accra area — a small Portuguese fort that predates Osu Castle and everything else on this stretch of coast. Most people walk past it in Jamestown without knowing what it is, and it is barely documented anywhere else online. Accra's European history starts here, not at Christiansborg.
On St Jago hill directly opposite Elmina Castle, built to stop anyone else doing what the Dutch had just done — taking Elmina from the high ground. The best view of the castle is from up here.
Two rival forts on one stretch of beach — the Dutch fort, and the more visible British one. The flashpoint of the Komenda Wars in the 1690s, a conflict in which local rulers, not the Europeans, largely determined who won. Nowhere shows how this coast actually worked more plainly.
Built by the English as Fort Kormantin, taken by the Dutch in 1665. The name Coromantee — used across the Caribbean for enslaved people shipped from this stretch of coast — comes from here.
Butre is where the Dutch signed a treaty with the Ahanta in 1656 that held until 1872 — one of the longest-standing agreements between a European power and an African state anywhere.
Goedehoop, above the fishing town of Senya Beraku. One of the last Dutch forts built on this coast, and among the more atmospheric to reach.
Fort Lijdzaamheid — the Dutch named it Patience because building it took so long. One of the better-preserved smaller forts, on a headland above a working fishing beach.
The Dutch fort above Sekondi harbour, built in the 1640s and later converted into a lighthouse — which is why it survives at all when so many others did not. It sits in a working port city rather than a heritage town, so almost nobody stops.
The British arrived late and finished first — by 1872 they had bought or taken everything. Their forts carry the second half of the story: the trade, its abolition, and the colonial administration that followed.
One of the largest British forts on the coast, and the site of the 1806 battle in which the Fante and their British allies lost to the Asante. A major slave-trading post, and far less visited than it deserves.
Above the fishing harbour at Dixcove, and one of the strangest stories on this coast — leased to a British private individual in the 2000s, prompting a dispute about who can hold a World Heritage site.
Not a fort in the fighting sense — a lighthouse tower built on an older battery above Cape Coast, and still operating. Walk up for the view over the castle and the town.
A small watchtower on the hill behind Cape Coast, built to guard the castle's landward approach. Little visited, and the quietest viewpoint over the town.
The only one far from the sea, built after the British occupation of Kumasi — and besieged in 1900 during the War of the Golden Stool, when Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante against it. Now a military museum.
Denmark held the coast east of Accra for nearly two centuries and sold the lot to Britain in 1850 — a reminder of how many European states were involved in this trade, including several that have largely forgotten it.
The easternmost fort, and the one the Atlantic is taking back — much of it has already gone to coastal erosion at Keta. What remains includes the dungeons. Go while there is something to see.
A Danish plantation fort at Teshie, part of Denmark's late attempt to grow crops on the Gold Coast rather than ship people from it. Largely unknown even in Accra.
Greater Accra has more forts than any other part of the coast and almost no fort tourism. These three get no visitors and, in two cases, no protection. One of them was run by African traders rather than Europeans — a part of this history the castle tours generally leave out, and which belongs in the record.
A slave-trading post in Osu run not by a European company but by a Euro-African family. The trade was not something done only to Africans by Europeans, and this building is the evidence, standing in a residential street a short walk from Osu Castle.
The British answer to Dutch Ussher Fort a few hundred metres away. Later a prison — Nkrumah was held here. Jamestown around it is one of the most photographed neighbourhoods in Accra.
Dutch Fort Crèvecœur, later British, later a prison — and one where political detainees were held after independence as well as before it. That continuity is rarely discussed.
A small British fort on the eastern coast at Prampram, now largely ruined. Along with Prinzenstein at Keta, one of the sites this coast is quietly taking back — and worth photographing while there is something left to photograph.
Know one we have missed? Around forty forts were built on this coast and not all of them are recorded anywhere. If you know of a ruin, a foundation or a building with a story attached, tell us — we would rather document it than let it disappear unnoticed.
At Cape Coast and Elmina you cannot enter the dungeons unaccompanied, and you would not want to. The guides are the experience — many have done this for decades. Fees differ for Ghanaians and foreign visitors, and there is usually a separate camera charge. Tip at the end.
The dungeons are not an exhibit. People become distressed, particularly diaspora visitors, and that is a normal response rather than an embarrassment. Allow a full morning, schedule nothing demanding afterwards, and consider going with someone rather than alone.
Permitted in most areas with a camera fee, but read the room. In the dungeons and at the Door of No Return there will be people having a profound personal experience. Photographing strangers in that moment is intrusion, not documentation.
The smaller forts often have no fixed hours and no staff. Ask in the town — someone will have the key, and a small payment is customary. Wear proper shoes: several are partly ruined, with unstable floors and no railings.
A route that works. Base at Cape Coast for two nights: the castle one morning, Elmina and Coenraadsburg the next, Anomabo and Fort Amsterdam on the way in or out. Add Kakum if you want a break from it — and you probably will.
Fort Batenstein, Western region, Butre
Fort Apollonia (Beyin)
Fort Saint Anthony (Axim)
Fort Gross Friedrichsburg (Prince’s Town) – German Prussia, later Dutch/British
Fort Dorothea (Akwida) – Dutch built, later British
Fort Metal Cross (Dixcove) – British 1690s, British/Dutch
Fort Batenstein (Butre) – Dutch 1656
Fort Orange (Sekondi) – Dutch built, later British
Fort San Sebastian (Shama) – Portuguese 1523, rebuilt by Dutch 1640.
Winneba Fort - 1632 British Faktorei ; later abandoned ( no later than 1644) again ; 1694 Fort ; 1812 abandoned by the British and blasted.
Cape Coast Castle - Door of no return.
British Fort at Komenda – (sometimes Fort Vredenburgh adjacent)
Fort Vredenburgh (Dutch Komenda)
Elmina Castle – Portuguese 1482, later Dutch & British
Fort St. Jago (Elmina) – Dutch defensive fort, later prison
Cape Coast Castle – main castle, major slave trade site
Fort Royal (Cape Coast)
Fort McCarthy (Cape Coast)
Fort Fredericksburg (Amanful)
Fort Nassau (Mouri)
Fort William (Anomabu) – British 1753
The “Little Fort” (Anomabu, close to Cape Coast and location of the first large battle in 1806, between Fante and English at one side, and the Asante on the other side! The Asante won!)
Fort Amsterdam (Abandze) – English 1638‑45 -
European Construction: Fort Amsterdam was one of several forts built by European powers—particularly the Dutch—along Ghana’s coast in the 17th century to support trade, including the tragic slave trade.
Fort Tantumquery – at Tantumquery
Fort Patience (Apam) – Dutch built 1697, called ‘Patience’ Fort.
Another name for Fort Patience in Ghana is Fort Lijdzaamheid.
This is the original Dutch name, meaning “Patience” in English. It was built by the Dutch West India Company in the town of Apam during the late 17th century.
Fort Good Hope (Senya Beraku) – Dutch (Goede Hoop)
James Fort (Jamestown, Accra) – British trading post 1673
Ussher Fort (Ussher Town, Accra) – Dutch-built, major site
Christiansborg Castle (Osu, Accra, also Osu Castle) – Danish 1661, seat of government
Fort Augustaborg (Teshie) – Danish built
Fort Fredensborg (Old Ningo) – Danish 1734
Richter’s Fort Osu: Hidden Slave Tunnel and Forgotten History
Fort James, James Town, Accra (c) Remo Kurka
Fort Prinzenstein (Keta) – Danes 1784, later British
Remains of the Keta Fort (Volta region)
Kumasi Fort, Kumasi, Ashanti region (c) Remo Kurka
