Paramaribo

hansgeijtenbeek (Atlas Obscura User)

Paramaribo was once the jewel of the Caribbean. Nowadays, many buildings in the city can use a lick of paint. Yet Paramaribo is still a great city where you can experience everything!Paramaribo is actually a large open-air museum. Everywhere the traces of history are still visible.

Paramaribo was founded in 1613 by two Dutchmen, but soon fell into the hands of England. The English founded another capital for Suriname: Thorarica (yep, hence the name of the famous hotel). In 1667 Suriname was recaptured by the Dutch and Paramaribo became the capital again.

Paramaribo originated around an important defense structure on the Suriname River: Fort Zeelandia. Fort Zeelandia has a turbulent history, but still stands proudly in the center of the city. The Dutch built their houses and buildings around the fort. The street names in the center still carry typically Dutch names such as ‘Gravenstraat’, ‘Heerenstraat’ and ‘Domineestraat’.

The Dutch obviously pay attention to their pennies. It was very expensive to have stones for the buildings from Europe. Wood was sufficiently available in Suriname. Most buildings in the center (and also many outside) are therefore wooden. Of course this is very risky and the city has regularly suffered from large city fires. The original wooden buildings from the seventeenth century have therefore disappeared.

The most important government buildings were made of stone. These are, for example, the governor’s palace, the Ministry of Finance, the Court of Justice and of course Fort Zeelandia. Many wooden buildings were given a brick foundation. These stones came as ballast on the outward journey of many sailing ships from the Netherlands (which on the way back were full of merchandise).