Fort St. Jago

Elmina, Ghana, Ghana

---

Fort St. Jago, also known as Fort Coenraadsburg or Fort São Tiago da Mina, is a small historic fort located on a high hill in Elmina, Ghana’s Central Region, directly opposite and overlooking Elmina Castle (St. George’s Castle) and the Atlantic Ocean.

Originally built by the Portuguese as a chapel dedicated to Saint Jago between 1555 and 1558, it was later converted into a lodge and watch tower, and in 1637 the Dutch bombarded Elmina Castle from gun positions on this hill, forcing the Portuguese surrender before building Fort St. Jago in place of the destroyed chapel to protect Elmina Castle from similar attacks.

Built for purely military purposes between 1637 and the 1660s (with some sources citing 1652 or 1660), it was considered the oldest and purely military architecture on the Gold Coast, containing only military quarters and no commercial warehouses, and served as a disciplinary institution holding European convicts and malcontents as a prison.