Plan of Fort Zeelandia and surroundings

Title Leupe: Plan de la Fortresse Zelandia levé en 1710.

After the Governor and Council of Surinam noted the bad condition of fort Zeelandia in the early 1700s, they commissioned a resident Huguenot, Isaac Tourton (1678-1742), to investigate the condition of the fort and make recommendations for improvements. In his report of 18 July, Tourton (1678-1742) concluded that Fort Zeelandia was not fit to defend the colony and that adaptations would be ineffectual. His recommendations of building an entirely new fort at the confluence of the Suriname and the Commewijne Rivers was, however, rejected by the councillors on account of the expected high costs and the unstable, muddy ground there. Instead, they asked Tourton to make a design for a fort to replace Zeelandia, for which he produced six variants (see VEL2030A1 to A6.) Design number six was ultimately endorsed to be built. In a subsequent letter, Tourton sent the ground plan of the present state of the fort, which is shown here, and his worked out detail map of plan number 6. The ground plan focuses on the direct surroundings of the star-shaped fort.

North is lower left.

Taken from: OBP Suriname 1710 [fol.] 347.

Scale-bar of 120 Toises de Rhin = [approximately 1 : 750].