Ussher Fort
former colonial fortified trading post in Ghana
Ussher Fort is a fort in Accra, Ghana. It was built by the Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is two days' march from Elmina and to the west of Accra on a rocky point between two lagoons. It was one of three forts that Europeans built in the region during the middle of the 17th century. Fort Crèvecœur was part of the Dutch Gold Coast. The Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty (1867), which defined areas of influence on the Gold Coast, transferred it to the British in 1868. Because of its significance in the history of European colonial trade and exploitation in Africa, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 (along with several other castles and forts in Ghana).
History
Negotiations to build a Dutch fort on the site began in 1610, but did not bear fruit until much later. Fort Crèvecœur was built in 1642 as a simple factory and then enlarged in 1649 by the Dutch West India Company. It was named after Fort Crèvecœur in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch Republic, which had played a crucial role in the Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch. One of the Dutch representatives, Henry Caerlof, developed good relations with the Dey of Fetu, who gave Caerlof permission to build Osu Castle in 1652 for the Swedish Africa company.
The public source identifies “Ussher Fort” as former colonial fortified trading post in Ghana. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ussher, Fort and former.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2424003. Authority coordinates are 5.538, -0.208. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1649, 1867, 1868 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ussher Fort” 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.