Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Curaçao
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How it came to be
In 1634 the Dutch West India Company took Curaçao from Spain and set up a trading post on its fine natural harbour. The first town, Punda, took its name from the Dutch for "the point" and was enclosed by walls. It soon became a major centre of the Atlantic slave trade, and its population grew fast.
Sephardic Jewish traders arrived from Amsterdam and from Recife in Brazil, and their synagogue is the oldest surviving in the Americas. In 1675 the town of Pietermaai was laid out beyond the walls, and the name Willemstad is first recorded in 1680. Otrobanda, whose name is Papiamentu for "the other side", was founded across the bay in 1707. In 1861 it was decided to pull down the city walls.
Royal Dutch Shell built a refinery here in 1915, and the town spread further. Its architecture mixes Dutch styles with those of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial towns it traded with. The historic area was inscribed in 1997.
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