Fort Gross Friedricksburg

Ghana, Ghana

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Fort Gross Friedricksburg (also spelled Fort Gross Fredericksburg) is the only German-built fort in Ghana, constructed between 1683 and 1684 by the Brandenburg Africa Company under the patronage of Frederick William of Brandenburg on Manfro Hill in Princes Town, in Ghana's Western Region.

Built from stone shipped from Prussia, it served as the company's headquarters and originally had 32 cannons, trading with merchants from all nations and becoming a hub for smugglers along the Gold Coast. The fort played a devastating role in the transatlantic slave trade, with an estimated 300,000 Africans transported through its gates.

In 1717, Brandenburg sold the fort to the Dutch, who renamed it "Hollandia," but Akan merchant John Canoe (also called Jonn Conny) seized it and resisted Dutch attempts to reclaim it for nearly 20 years, earning him hero status in local and Caribbean slave tales. The Dutch finally seized it in 1725, gave it to Britain in 1872, and it became part of independent Ghana in 1957.