Elmina Castle

Elmina Castle

The Portuguese built Elmina Castle in 1482 as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina in what is now Elmina, previously known as the Gold Coast. It is the oldest surviving European building south of the Sahara and was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea. It was first established as a trading settlement. Later, it became a major stop on the Atlantic slave trade route. The Dutch took the fort in 1637 from the Portuguese, following an ill-fated effort in 1596, and conquered the whole of the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. Until 1814, the slave trade continued under Dutch rule. By 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast, along with the fort, had become a United Kingdom property. The castle is controlled by the Gold Coast, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. Elmina Castle is a historic site and was an important location for the filming of Werner Herzog's drama film "Cobra Verde" in 1987. The castle, along with other castles and forts in Ghana, is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its documentation of the Atlantic slave trade. The site is one of the most important tourist attractions in Ghana. The castle was the subject of extensive restoration work by the Ghanaian government in the 1990s, and is still under restoration today. Nowadays, tourism and fishing are the mainstays of Elmina's economy. Elmina Castle was documented with terrestrial 3D laser scanning by the Zamani Project in 2006. On the project's website you can find the 3D model, a panoramic tour, elevations, sections and plans of the castle.