Fort Apollonia is a fort in

Beyin Beyin is a village in the Jomoro district, a district in the Western Region of Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. The name Apollonia was given to the area by a Portuguese explorer who sighted the place on the Feast of

Saint Apollonia Saint Apollonia (; , ) was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians prior to the persecution of Decius. According to church tradition, her torture included having all of her tee ...

, 9 February. Because of its importance during the European colonial period and its testimony to the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

, Fort Apollonia was inscribed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

along with several other forts and castles in Ghana in 1979.

History

The Swedes established a trading post at Apollona as part of the

Swedish Gold Coast The Swedish Gold Coast () was a Swedish colony founded in 1650 by the Swedish Africa Company and Hendrik Carloff on the Gulf of Guinea in present-day Ghana in Africa. Under Swedish control for eleven years, it disappeared for good in April 16 ...

between 1655 and 1657. In 1691, a British trading post was erected at this site, which between 1768 and 1770 was extended into a fort. After the abolition of slave trade, the fort was abandoned in 1819, but it was again occupied from 1836 onward. The fort was transferred to the Dutch as part of a large trade of forts between Britain and the Netherlands in 1868, on which occasion it was renamed Fort Willem III, after King

William III of the Netherlands William III (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk''; English: ''William Alexander Paul Frederick Louis''; 19 February 1817 – 23 November 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until ...

. Four years later, however, on 6 April 1872, the fort was, along with the entire

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch (et ...

, again transferred to the United Kingdom, as per the Gold Coast treaty of 1871.

Current Situation

The British bombarded the fort in 1873 on the attack of Beyin on account of its coalition with the Ashantis. It was rehabilitated in 1962 and completed in 1968 by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. Fort Apollonia houses the Museum of Nzema Culture and History, which opened in 2010.

Gallery

File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 16.jpg, Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 18.jpg, Fort Apollonia in Ghana File:Fort Apollonia 8.jpg, Landscape view of Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 14.jpg, Water storage at Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 6.jpg, Cannon ball at Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia 5.jpg, Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia 7.jpg, Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia 1.jpg, Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 20.jpg, Fort Apollonia File:Fort Apollonia in Ghana 15.jpg, Fort Apollonia in Ghana

Notes

{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1691 Military installations established in 1770 Castles in Ghana Dutch Gold Coast 1691 establishments in the British Empire 1868 establishments in the Dutch Empire 1691 establishments in Africa Apollonia