The Amsterdam Battery was the most important of the military installations built by the
Dutch East India Company to protect
Table Bay. It marked the beginning of coastal defense in
South Africa.
Location
Only a piece of the walls of the battery, the oldest structure in the area, remains. It lies by the entrance to the
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and the
Port of Cape Town, behind a shipyard and north-northeast of the
Castle of Good Hope. Battery Park lies between Port and Dock Roads and Alfred Street. It was located in a very strategic place and helped provide cover fire for adjacent fortifications.
Building
The battery was built with the help of the
French vice-admiral
Pierre André de Suffren (1726–1788) and the architect
Louis Michel Thibault from 1781 to 1787. The wall was 17.5 m high with
arrowslits and could withstand heavy enemy fire. Canons lay on the top floor.
Ammunition and
cannonballs were stored in the basement and in the
gunpowder magazine behind the battery. The main guns were 12.5 m above sea level. Two hundred soldiers could be housed in the front barracks. However, military operations never needed to be launched from the fortress. When the artillery were first tested, however, two soldiers died and Gov.
Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff was wounded. In 1827, the weaponry was removed, and the building was used from then on as a prison.
The Amsterdam Battery was the most important of the military installations built by the
Dutch East India Company to protect
Table Bay. It marked the beginning of coastal defense in
South Africa.
Location
Only a piece of the walls of the battery, the oldest structure in the area, remains. It lies by the entrance to the
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and the
Port of Cape Town, behind a shipyard and north-northeast of the
Castle of Good Hope. Battery Park lies between Port and Dock Roads and Alfred Street. It was located in a very strategic place and helped provide cover fire for adjacent fortifications.
Building
The battery was built with the help of the
French vice-admiral
Pierre André de Suffren (1726–1788) and the architect
Louis Michel Thibault from 1781 to 1787. The wall was 17.5 m high with
arrowslits and could withstand heavy enemy fire. Canons lay on the top floor.
Ammunition and
cannonballs were stored in the basement and in the
gunpowder magazine behind the battery. The main guns were 12.5 m above sea level. Two hundred soldiers could be housed in the front barracks. However, military operations never needed to be launched from the fortress. When the artillery were first tested, however, two soldiers died and Gov.
Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff was wounded. In 1827, the weaponry was removed, and the building was used from then on as a prison.