Map for a new design of fort Nieuw Amsterdam

Title Leupe: Plan van het fort Amsterdam, op de hoek van de rivieren Suriname en Commewine, benevens grondteekeningen en profiles voor de militaire gebouwen.

In view of the handwriting and its contents, this large collective map is a copy by the chief engineer Pierre-Dominique Desmarestz of his original design for the buildings inside Fort Nieuw Amsterdam, drawn in the preliminary stages of the project, 1734-1737. As the project was executed in the course of the next decade, various alterations were made, partly on Commander Chambrier’s initiative.

At the end of 1733, an agreement between the Society of Surinam and representatives of the colonists to improve Surinam's defences was ratified by the Dutch Estates-General. This design would have been made as part of these plans shortly afterwards. The actual work began in 1736 and dragged on with numerous set-backs, conflicts and delays until 1747. Afterwards, the fort would remain problematic both in terms of maintenance and defence. (For more details on its building history, see under 'documentation', especially the book by Temminck Groll.)

North is upper left.

Scale-bars of 80 Rhineland for the Fort = [approximately 1 : 2,350] / [buildings] and for the baracks 60 feet = [approximately 1 : 150]..