Elmina Castle, fortified castle in Elmina, Ghana, that is thought to be the oldest surviving European building in Africa south of the Sahara. Built in 1482 by the Portuguese to protect the gold trade, Elmina Castle later became a major center of the transatlantic slave trade.
The Portuguese had begun exploring the West African coast for both trading and Christian missionary purposes in the 15th century. In 1471 they arrived at what was later called the Gold Coast, finding a thriving gold trading economy. They established their own trading outpost, which was subsequently called Elmina, from the Portuguese De Costa da el Mina de Ouro (the Coast of Gold Mines). There they established a friendly and profitable relationship with a powerful local chief they called Caramansa. In 1482 Caramansa was persuaded to permit the Portuguese to build a fort commanding the harbor to protect the gold trade. The castle, originally known as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina, or St. George of the Mine Castle, was constructed from numbered, prefabricated, granite blocks that were shipped out from Portugal in a fleet of 11 or 12 ships together with 700 soldiers for the garrison. Many accounts maintain that one of those on the expedition was Christopher Columbus, 10 years before he set sail on his voyage to America.
Elmina became the center of Portuguese trade on the Gold Coast in gold and, later, slaves. The castle became a depot from which enslaved Africans from the interior were sold and shipped to Brazil and other Portuguese colonies. In the 16th century, the Dutch, the British, and the French took an increasing interest in the West African coast, and the Dutch attacked Elmina several times. In 1637 they successfully bombarded the castle into submission, and Elmina then became the main Dutch Gold Coast center. The Dutch greatly enlarged and strengthened the Portuguese castle in the 1770s, and they converted the chapel for use in staging slave auctions. The dungeons, where as many as 200 slaves at a time were held before shipment, can still be seen. However, in 1815, the Netherlands outlawed the slave trade. The Gold Coast, including Elmina, became a British colony in 1872.
Elmina Castle was no longer useful even before it came under British control. By the time Ghana (the former Gold Coast) became independent in 1957, it was finding use as a police training school. Together with other forts and castles along the coast of Ghana, it became a World Heritage site in 1979, and Elmina Castle was opened as a museum in 1997.