Willemstad

This article covers the capital of Curacao. For the city of Willemstad in North Brabant / Netherlands see Moerdijk .

Willemstad Willemstad
Coordinates	12 ° 6 ′  N , 68 ° 56 ′  W Coordinates: 12 ° 6 ′  N , 68 ° 56 ′  W
Willemstad on Curacao
Basic data
Country	Curacao
Country	Kingdom of the Netherlands
autonomous part of the country	Curacao
Residents	140,000 (2008)
founding	1634
Panorama of the city center

Queen Emma Bridge

Willemstad is the capital of Curaçao . Today Willemstad has 125,000 inhabitants, making it the largest city in the Dutch territories in the Caribbean .

The city is located on the southwest shore of the island of Curaçao and has a natural harbor, called Schottegat , which is shielded from the sea by the Sint Annabaai . The two opposite districts of Otrabanda and Punda have been connected by the Queen Emma Bridge since 1886 .

history

The original residents were Arawak . The island was discovered by the Spanish in 1499 . They are said to have gone ashore on July 26th, the name day of Saint Anne , and named the bay Bahia de Santa Ana ("Sint Annabaai"). In 1515 almost all of the Arawak were brought to Spain as slaves . In 1527 the Spaniards finally settled on Curaçao.

In 1634 Willemstad was conquered by the Dutch . The area east of St. Annabaai was called De Punt ("the point"); in the island dialect Papiamentu punta . It later became Punda . A fort was built on “the point” in 1635 to protect the port entrance: Fort Amsterdam . It is the oldest fort of the West India Company on Curaçao. The city grew around the fort. In 1707 a new quarter was founded on the opposite side of the Baai: Otrabanda (from Papiamentu: "the other side").

On May 30, 1969, a workers' uprising broke out in Willemstad in which union leader Wilson Godett was shot. Angry workers then set fire in the Heerenstraat . The Netherlands intervened in the conflict by flying in 300 marines to restore order. A few days later, Godett and his colleagues founded the party Frente Obrero i Liberashon 30 di Mei (FOL), which won around a quarter of the votes in the subsequent elections.

In 1997, UNESCO put the city center of Willemstad on the list of world cultural assets . Willemstad was the capital of the Netherlands Antilles until October 10, 2010 .

Willemstad Harbor

Economy and education

The free port and shipyard in Willemstad

In the 17th century Willemstad became a major trading port in the Caribbean. An important regional slave market soon developed here . The slaves were imported from West Africa and brought ashore in Willemstad to be sold to various destinations in Central and South America. The scanty agricultural yields and scanty water resources of the island of Curaçao were not worth the establishment of a plantation economy; the island is mainly supplied with food and drinking water from neighboring Venezuela. The construction of a modern seawater desalination plant on the outskirts of Willemstad has stabilized the drinking water supply.

In the 1920s Shell built one of the largest oil refineries in the world in Willemstad . Since then, crude oil from Venezuela has been processed here. This location was chosen because the political conditions on the mainland were considered too unstable. During the Second World War , the production of jet fuel for the planes of the British and Canadian Air Force was in full swing. After the Second World War, the refinery was expanded several times; More than 2000 new jobs, urban infrastructure according to European standards and housing developments have been created on the outskirts. Today the refinery is operated by the Venezuelan oil company PdVSA . The industrial port is located next to the oil port; it is operated as a free port and used as a central container transshipment point for the Caribbean islands. Since the 1960s, tourism has become an important industry. There are many hotels and casinos. Cruise ships dock here regularly.

The following universities and colleges with teaching and research facilities are located on Curaçao:

• the University of Curaçao,
• the University of the Netherlands Antilles
• Avalon University School of Medicine (existed until 2010 as Xavier University School of Medicine on the neighboring island of Bonaire )
• the Caribbean Medical University (a private medical college)
• St. Martinus University, Faculty of Medicine (originally St. Martinus Catholic College for Girls).

The traditional " Peter Stuyvesant College", which was founded in the 19th century, was renamed "Kolegio Alejandro Paula" (KAP) in 2011.

In 1985 an attempt was made to establish Willemstad as a venue for motor sport events. On October 13, 1985, the Curaçao Grand Prix, a Formula 3000 race, took place in the streets of the city . Contrary to original expectations, the race remained a single event.

sons and daughters of the town

• Vurnon Anita (* 1989), soccer player
• Charlison Benschop (* 1989), Dutch soccer player
• Theu Boermans (born 1950), director
• Jurswailly Luciano (* 1991), handball player
• George Maduro (1916–1945), resistance fighter
• Danny Makkelie (* 1983), football referee
• Bas Maliepaard (* 1938), racing cyclist
• Churandy Martina (* 1984), athlete
• Wim Statius Muller (1930–2019), composer and pianist
• Robby Müller (1940-2018), cameraman
• Jarzinho Pieter (1987-2019), football player
• Jean-Julien Rojer (* 1981), tennis player
• Richmar Siberie (* 1982), national soccer player for the Netherlands Antilles
• Henk Visser (1932–2015), track and field athlete
• Andruw Jones (born 1977), baseball player
• Tahith Chong (* 1999), soccer player

Climate table

Willemstad
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     46   29 24     28   29 24     15th   30th 24     19th   30th 25th     25th   31 26th     21st   31 26th     34   31 26th     41   32 26th     45   32 26th     83   32 26th     96   31 25th     99   30th 24 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Willemstad Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 29.2 29.4 29.9 30.4 31.1 31.4 31.4 31.9 32.3 31.5 30.7 29.8 O 30.8 Min. Temperature (° C) 23.9 24.0 24.4 25.0 25.8 25.9 25.7 26.0 26.3 25.9 25.3 24.4 O 25.2 Precipitation ( mm ) 46 28 15th 19th 25th 21st 34 41 45 83 96 99 Σ 552 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 8.2 8.6 8.6 7.9 7.8 8.5 9.1 9.3 8.5 7.9 7.6 7.5 O 8.3 Rainy days ( d ) 8th 5 3 3 3 3 6th 5 5 8th 10 12 Σ 71 Water temperature (° C) 26th 25th 26th 26th 26th 27 27 28 28 28 28 27 O 26.8 Humidity ( % ) 76 75 74 75 77 76 76 76 75 77 78 77 O 76 Source: wetterkontor.de

Web links

Commons : Willemstad  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Willemstad  - travel guide

• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
• Willemstad - Little Amsterdam in the Caribbean (Documentary on world heritage. Also about the Jews who fled from Spain to Amsterdam before the Inquisition and the oldest synagogue in use in both America.)