Fort Gross Fredericksburg

Hilltop fort ruins at Princes Town, tied to the short-lived Prussian Gold Coast.

Fort Gross Fredericksburg sits at Princes Town, west of Cape Three Points, and makes a good historical counterweight to the beaches and lighthouse. The fort was built by Brandenburg-Prussia, later passed through other hands, and now stands as a quieter ruin than the famous castles farther east.

Come for the setting as much as the masonry. The hill gives views over the coast and village, and the site helps explain why even remote-looking coves on this shoreline were once part of fierce Atlantic trade rivalries.

things to do sight history
A story
The fort is a reminder that the Gold Coast was not only a British, Dutch, and Portuguese story. Brandenburg-Prussia held a small coastal colony here in the late 17th century, leaving one of the stranger European footprints on this stretch of Ghana.