Elmina Castle (St George’s Castle)

Elmina Castle, formally St George's Castle, is the oldest surviving European building in sub-Saharan Africa and the essential companion to Cape Coast Castle on a heritage trip west of Accra. The Portuguese built it in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina, the first European trading post on the Gulf of Guinea, under the command of Diogo de Azambuja. The Dutch West India Company captured it in 1637, and it passed to the British in 1872. Over those centuries it moved from the trade in gold to the trade in enslaved Africans, and in 1979 it was inscribed by UNESCO with Ghana's other coastal forts and castles.

Visiting is about taking the guided tour, which leads through the former storehouses and slave dungeons, the chapels, the governor's quarters and a cell where a King of Asante was once held prisoner. The tour ends on the battlements, where there are wide views over the fishing harbour, the crowded canoes of Elmina town and Fort St Jago on the hill opposite. A small museum, set up in the 1990s with the support of USAID and an American university consortium, displays photographs of the castle across the centuries, material on the Asante of Elmina and trade with Europeans, gold weights, shackles, beads, ceramics, textiles and stools.

This is a moving and often emotional visit, particularly for travellers of African descent, and it suits adults and older children. Younger children may find the dungeons and the subject matter upsetting. The castle has a restaurant and bar, a bookshop and gift shop, and a car park, which makes it a practical place to pause on a long day of sightseeing.

The museum's published hours are 09:00 to 16:30 daily. Admission is charged, with separate rates for Ghanaian and international visitors and reductions for students. Allow one and a half to two hours. Arrive early or late in the day to avoid the heat on the open courtyards and ramparts, wear comfortable shoes for uneven floors and stairs, and dress respectfully.

Elmina lies on the coast a short drive west of Cape Coast. From Accra it is a long journey by road, so most people visit both castles on one full-day tour or, more comfortably, on an overnight trip that also includes the canopy walkway at Kakum National Park. Tour operators in Accra run these combined trips regularly.