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local Thursday 21 augusT 2025
Visit the historic museum at Fort Zoutman!

(Oranjestad)—Located in rich depository of the com-
the middle of downtown mercial, military and social
Oranjestad, situated right history of Oranjestad, offer-
next to the government ing a glance into how the
building “Cocolishi”, is one social culture of the town
of the oldest buildings of came to be. If you are
Aruba: Fort Zoutman. First interested in history and
constructed in 1796, this want to learn more about
site has been used (or left Aruba, then Fort Zoutman
unused) in many ways and should definitely be includ-
have survived eras of war ed into your itinerary.
and attempted disman-
tling. The museum is open Mon-
day to Friday from 9am-
When anyone refers to 6pm, and Saturday from
Fort Zoutman, they are 10am-2pm.q Source: The Old Fort of Aruba by Jan Hartog.
actually referring to two
separate buildings that,
over the years, have been
merged: the fort and the
tower. That’s right, the
iconic 5-story, squared
tower was not part of the
original structure of the
fort, and is actually called
“Willem III Toren”. Con-
structed in 1867, this tower
was named after the then-
reigning king of The Neth-
erlands, Willem III. Willem III
Toren was originally a light
tower, but after a request
from Lieutenant Governor
Jan Helenus in 1866, it also
became a bell tower.

The fort itself was origi-
nally constructed to pro-
tect the commerce bay
of Paardenbaai from pi-
rates and other disrepu-
table characters roaming
the Caribbean Sea. Unlike
the Willem III Toren, Fort
Zoutman had a more tu-
multuous past, including
the on-and-off reception
of unwanted members of
the English military several
times (The Netherlands was
at constant war with Eng-
land back in the colonial
era).

Over the years, both the
fort and the tower had
functioned as different
government center points,
including a tax and stamps
office. For some time these
two buildings also housed
a police precinct and jail,
and even experienced
abandonment until the
Cultural Center Aruba
Foundation (CCA) peti-
tioned for its renovation in
1964, turning the site into
the Historic Museum it cur-
rently is.

Despite its small size, The
Historic Museum guards a