The Portuguese built the fort in 1482. Diogo de Azambuja's fleet arrived on January 19, 1482, and work began the next morning. The article calls it the first prefabricated European building in Sub-Saharan Africa, since materials from foundation stones to roof tiles arrived on ten caravels and two transport ships. Building required demolishing some villagers' homes and quarrying a rock the local people considered sacred.
The Dutch West India Company captured the fort in 1637, and the British took over in 1872.
The Portuguese initially did not trade captives directly, so the castle served as a transshipment point. In the 17th century it was a depot where enslaved Africans were held before sale, and the Dutch continued the trade until 1814. It has male and female slave entrances, holding cells and solitary confinement rooms. UNESCO listed it in 1979. Ghana restored it in the 1990s, and it is a national museum.
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