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Plan of the outer works around Fort Zeelandia

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Plan of the outer works around Fort Zeelandia

Meij van Oosterhout, Dirck van der

Title Leupe: Platte grond van de Buytenwerken om het fortress Zeelandia, zoo als dezelve zyn gemaakt en hersteld enz.

In the decades after 1710, numerous suggestions were made to revise the design of fort Zeelandia. Despite all the recommendations for a much larger fort, indeed even a citadel at Paramaribo, until around 1780 the design of Fort Zeelandia remained more or less unchanged, except for some repairs of the outer walls and the addition of several buildings within. Only in 1781 was a new battery with eleven pieces of ordnance constructred on the southeastern flank of the outer fort. This would offer better protection against an attack by enemy ships on the river. The situation after completion can be seen on this map of June 1781 by the sworn Surveyor of Holland, Zeeland and West Friesland Dirck van der Meij van Oosterhout, who was seconded to Surinam from 1781 to 1783 and, according to the annotation, also supervised this work on the fort.

North is upper right.

Scale-bar of 21 Rhineland rods, of 12 feet each = [approximately 1 : 450].

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Sources and literature

Heijer, H. den, Grote Atlas van de West-Indische Compagnie = Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch West India Company, II, de nieuwe WIC 1674-1791 = the new WIC 1674-1791 (2012)