Historic Center of Willemstad: A "Tropicalized" Holland

In 1634, in a beautiful natural Caribbean harbor on the island of Curaçao, the Dutch established a trading post. It soon developed into a thriving city that today presents an urban center with different historic districts, whose architecture reflects both the styles of the Netherlands and the Spanish and Portuguese colonial cities with which Willemstad carried out its commercial transactions.

The historic area of Willemstad is characterized by an urban landscape consisting of four historic neighborhoods: Punda, Pietermaai, Otrobanda, and Scharloo, which are separated by a natural harbor. Although each has its own urban morphology, they all share a "tropicalized" historic Dutch architecture. 

The World Heritage site consists of a central part built by the bay of Sint Anna and a part of the Caribbean Sea, the Punda neighborhood, and a large area of Otrobanda, plus two transmission areas that penetrate the neighborhoods of Pietermaai and Scharloo. The mouth of Sint Anna Bay is protected by the Water Fort on the Punda side and by the Rif Fort on the Otrobanda side. Each neighborhood surrounding the bay has a square facing the sea, the Gouvernementsplain on Punda and the Brion square on Otrobanda, and both sides are connected by the famous Queen Emma floating bridge, built in 1888, known by the inhabitants of Willemstad by the curious name of "the Old Lady Dipper". 

The development of Punda began with the construction of Fort Amsterdam with five bastions between 1634 and 1638. This self-contained settlement had its own church, a water supply system and housed the governor's residence and garrison barracks. The fortified town of Willemstad was formed in 1650 in the vicinity of the fort in a progressively orthogonal structure. In the 18th century, there were already more than 200 houses behind the walls. These were two- or three-story buildings adorned with balconies. In 1866, the ramparts were demolished. One of the most unique constructions in this district is the Micvé Israël-Emanuel synagogue, built in 1732, also known as the Curaçao synagogue. 

The expansion of Otrobanda on the west side of Sint Anna Bay did not begin until 1707. At first, the buildings could only be one story high, so as not to hinder the firing range of Fort Amsterdam. Since it was not walled, its development was quite different from that of Punda, and the houses, large and spacious, look like plantation houses.

East of Punda, Pietermaai developed during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was initially occupied by wealthy merchants and shipowners and later, after 1816, by high-ranking Dutch administrators. It is characterized by its majestic houses along the Caribbean coast. Scharloo, a plantation area, was transformed into a residential neighborhood in the mid-19th century by wealthy Jewish merchants. From the 1870s onwards, numerous spacious and luxurious properties were built. The architecture in all these neighborhoods was based on the Dutch styles of the XVI and XVII centuries but modified by a strong local architectural influence that have made Willemstad a colonial city different from the others that surround it in the Caribbean Sea.