Fort Nassau

Fort Nassau was founded in the 1620s on the Berbice river and was the capital of the Dutch colony of Berbice until 1763, when Governor van Hoogenheim had it destroyed to keep it from falling to the rebels of the Berbice slave uprising, after which New Amsterdam took its place. What survives is foundations, brickwork, graves and the outline of the settlement in the forest that has grown over the site. It takes a boat trip and a guide to find, and there is nothing built there now.

History

Around 1627 the Dutch settler Abraham van Peere received permission from the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch West India Company to settle in Berbice, and with about 40 men and 20 boys he built a fort some 80 kilometres up the river, naming it after Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. It became a successful trading post, exchanging knives, hardware and cloth for tobacco and annatto; the French burnt it in 1712 but the Dutch rebuilt it, the village around it was named New Amsterdam in 1733, and in 1763 Governor van Hoogenheim had the fort destroyed so that the rebels of the Berbice slave uprising could not take it (Wikipedia, Fort Nassau (Guyana)).

What's there

• The foundations - brick and stone remains of the fort and settlement.
• The graves - burials from the colonial period among the ruins.
• The forest - regrown woodland covering the whole site.
• The Berbice river - the river the settlement was built to command.

When to go

September to April is drier and easier for the boat trip and the walking. The wet seasons raise the river and make the ground worse. Vegetation is thickest after the rains.

Good to know

The site is heavily overgrown and hard to read without a guide who knows it. Boat hire from New Amsterdam is the main cost and takes about two hours each way. There are no facilities and no interpretation.

Nearby

New Amsterdam is downriver, and the Berbice runs south into the interior.

Key facts