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Punda (9 hectares) on the
east bank of Sint Anna Bay is the oldest district of
Historic Willemstad. Punda refers to the Dutch word
‘Punt’, the tip of land on which it was built.
It began its development with the construction of Fort
Amsterdam in 1634. Decades later, a fortified city was
laid out adjacent to the Fort in an orthogonal grid
pattern of narrow streets and alleys. It was designed
following the old Dutch fortification system. Within the
town’s ramparts two- to three-storey dwellings, mostly
shophouses, were built on narrow, elongated lots. Later
on galleries were added to the front façades. The
synagogue Mikvé Israël Emanuel, oldest in the western
hemisphere, was built in 1732 in the eastern part
forming the final piece of the fortified town. Typical
of Punda are the tightly laid out multi-storey
shophouses designed to cope with the limited space
available within the ramparts. A change in the military
defense strategy led to the removal of the ramparts
around the town which began in 1860.
Punda presently is the main shopping district of
Historic Willemstad and the seat of government of the
Netherlands Antilles.
Otrobanda
(50 hectares) was built in the early 18th century to
cope with the increasing demand for urban space for the
people of Willemstad.
Called Otrobanda, the ‘other side’, it aptly refers to
its location on the other - west - bank of Sint Anna
Bay. An unfortified open lay-out of low-rise structures,
Otrobanda developed quite differently from Punda. In
Otrobanda four quarters, each with a different
structure, can be identified. The Alley Area (Stegengebied),
a maze of narrow streets and alleys, the Corral Area (Koralengebied)
with spacious walled-in yards accommodating a mansion
and servants dwellings, the IJzerstraat Area with
sloping, curved streets, and the Hoogstraat Area,
Otrobanda’s uphill area which became a luxurious
residential quarter in the second half of the 19th
century dominated by Belvédère, the governor’s residence
in those days. The IJzerstraat area has recently been
developed into the Kura Hulanda hotel and museum complex
following a unique concept where hotel guests stay in
restored historic dwellings. Here streets, alleys and
intimate squares form the hotel’s infrastructure used as
its corridors and lounges.
A sharp contrast to formal Punda, Otrobanda has retained
its character as a colourful and lively working class
district. |
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Willemstad World Heritage City
Historic
Willemstad on Curaçao has gone a long way to earn the
UNESCO hallmark of World Heritage City in December 1997.
Willemstad’s historic core had suffered from the public
revolt of May 1969 in the city which left key historic
areas partly destroyed as a result of the city fires
ignited by the revolting masses. This was followed by
sheer neglect of the city’s historic structures in the
next two decades. A Building Ordinance dating from 1935
was the sole instrument to regulate the city’s
development.
With the ambition to revitalize the city and to have
historic Willemstad inscribed on the World Heritage List
of UNESCO the development of a coherent package of legal
and financial instruments for the protection of the
historic city was started in 1988 by ICAW Interregional
Committee Action Willemstad. After ten years of hard
work The Historic Area of Willemstad Inner City and
Harbour was awarded the World Heritage status in
December 1997.
With this, Historic Willemstad has met the test of
outstanding universal value and has been acknowledged as
part of the cultural heritage of mankind.
The Site
Willemstad developed on a strategic location on both
sides of Sint Anna Bay on the southern part of the
island. Sint Anna Bay is a narrow gateway leading to the
sheltered inland bay of Schottegat, both natural
deep-water facilities which have triggered the creation
and further growth of Willemstad as a thriving trade
settlement.
The Historic Area of Willemstad presently is made up of
four historic districts, 17th century Punda (9
hectares), 18th century Otrobanda (50 hectares) and 19th
century Pietermaai (9 hectares) and Scharloo (25
hectares). These are separated by the waters of Sint
Anna Bay and Waaigat which have turned Historic
Willemstad into an important and exceptional historic
port-town in the Caribbean.
Willemstad World Heritage City consists of a core area,
transmission areas and buffer zones. The core area is
made up of Sint Anna Bay and part of the Caribbean Sea,
and the historic districts of Punda and the larger part
of Otrobanda. Transmission areas are the historic
districts of Pietermaai, Scharloo and Kortijn.
There are two buffer zones, the waters of Waaigat and
surroundings in between Pietermaai and Scharloo and the
area north of the property stretching to the boundary of
the site.
Furthermore specific monuments and groups of monuments
with an outstanding cultural and historical value are
included.
Maps: map with boundaries and
zones of
WH-site and map of WH-property
A Family of Cities
Historic Willemstad’s meaning also is that it belongs
to ‘A family of cities’ established overseas by the
Dutch. Among Willemstad’s (1634) sister cities founded
by the Dutch West India Company are New York (1625,
Nieuw Amsterdam) in the USA, Paramaribo (1667) in
Suriname, Recife (1637, Mauritsstad) in Brazil. Distant
members of the family established by the Dutch East
India Company are Cape-town (1652, Kaapstad) in South
Africa, Galle (1640) and Colombo (1656) in Sri Lanka and
Jakarta (1619, Batavia) in Indonesia.
Willemstad presently is among the three World Heritage
Sites which are from Dutch colonial origin. The Old Town
of Galle and its Fortifications and the Historic Inner
City of Paramaribo became World Heritage Sites in 1988
and 2002.
The World Heritage Report
Historic Willemstad has been
inscribed on the World Heritage List on the
basis of criteria (ii), (iv) and (v) of
paragraph 24 of the ‘Operational Guidelines for
the Implementation of the World Heritage
Convention’.
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(ii)
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exhibit an important interchange of human
values, over a span of time or within a cultural
area of the world, on developments in
architecture or technology, monumental arts,
town-planning or landscape design |
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(iv) |
be an
outstanding example of a type of building or
architectural or technological ensemble or
landscape which illustrates significant stages
in human history |
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(v) |
be an
outstanding example of a traditional human
settlement or land-use which is representative
of cultures, especially when it has become
vulnerable under the impact of irreversible
change |
Its significance and cultural-historical value can
best be summarized by quoting the recommendation
presented to the World Heritage Committee, which reads:
The Historic Area of Willemstad is a European
colonial ensemble in the Caribbean of outstanding value
and integrity, which illustrates the organic growth of a
multicultural community over three centuries and
preserves to a high degree significant elements of the
many strands that came together to create it.
Websites on World Heritage and World Heritage
Sites
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