Fort Metal Cross

Fort Metal Cross
Part of British Gold Coast
Fort Metal Cross in 1727.
Fort Metal Cross
Coordinates	4°48′N 1°57′W / 4.8°N 1.95°W
Site history
Built	1683
Garrison information
Occupants	Britain (1683-1868) Netherlands (1868-1872)

Fort Metal Cross is a fort in Dixcove, Ghana. It was built by the British as a trading post in 1683. Brandenburg-Prussia started building Fort Groß Friedrichsburg about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Dixcove in 1683, (now Princes Town) in the colony of Brandenburger Gold Coast but it was not completed until the 1690s.

Map of fort, 1746

Fort Metal Cross was besieged twice in 1712 by John Kanu, a local ally of the Prussians, but the fort was defended successfully.

The fort was transferred to the Dutch as part of a large trade of forts between Britain and the Netherlands in 1868 under the Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty. Four years later, however, on 6 April 1872, the fort was, with the entire Dutch Gold Coast, again transferred to the United Kingdom, as per the Gold Coast treaty of 1871.

The Fort was included as one of the Forts and Castles of Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions that became a World Heritage Site in 1979.

Fort Metal Cross, Dixcove, Western Region, Ghana, in May 2012

Notes