Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam
fort near Nieuw-Amsterdam, Suriname
Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam is a fort in Suriname built from 1734 to 1747 at the confluence of the Suriname and Commewijne rivers. It is open to the public as an open-air museum.
History
The necessity of improving the fortifications of the colony of Suriname was underscored when French buccaneers under the leadership of Jacques Cassard attacked the colony in 1712. Fort Sommelsdijk, which was situated further upstream the Commewijne River at its confluence with the Cottica River was fortified for this purpose in 1715, but it was clear something more substantial needed to be done to defend the colony against foreign attacks. It was eventually decided to build a new fort at the confluence of the Suriname and Commewijne rivers. When Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam was completed in 1747, Fort Sommelsdijk was downgraded to a military outpost.
In 1804, the fort was captured by British forces led by Samuel Hood and Charles Green, during the Invasion of Suriname, which was a campaign during the Napoleonic Wars. This battle was notable for being the first usage of Shrapnel shells.
Between 1863 and 1967, the fort was used as a prison. It is the location of the decommissioned lightvessel Suriname-Rivier, which is permanently moored in a wet dock inside the fort.
“Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam” enters the record as fort near Nieuw-Amsterdam, Suriname. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fort, Nieuw-Amsterdam and fort can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fort, Nieuw-Amsterdam and fort provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2476520. VIAF identifies the subject as 288639447. Authority coordinates are 5.888, -55.092. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1734, 1747, 1712 and 1715.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.