Fort Santo Antonio

Fort Saint Anthony — known in Portuguese as Forte de Santo António and in Dutch as Fort Sint Anthony — stands at Axim, a coastal town and capital of the Nzema East Municipal in Ghana's Western Region. Begun by the Portuguese in 1515, it was the second Portuguese fort on the Gold Coast after Elmina Castle. It was built as a massive triangular fort on a small rocky promontory near the River Ankobra, with a three-metre-deep rock-cut trench on the landward side.

Its position gave the fort access to gold from the Ankobra and Tano river valleys. After Elmina fell to the Dutch in 1637, Fort Saint Anthony withstood attacks for more than four years before the Dutch captured it in 1642. They expanded it considerably, including space to hold enslaved people before transport, and it was a main regional slave trading post in the eighteenth century. It was ceded to Britain in 1872 and rehabilitated in the 1950s for government and local council offices.

The fort is now state property managed by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. Its seventeenth- and eighteenth-century panelling is noted as an archaeological feature, and the Board states the fort is a proposed site for a museum and restaurant. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 as part of the Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions property.

Visitors should note that the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board announced the fort was temporarily closed to the public with effect from Thursday, 18 December 2025, until further notice, for essential maintenance, safety assessments and conservation works. The Board's published visiting hours of 9:00am to 4:30pm predate that closure. Anyone planning a trip should confirm current access with the Board before travelling.

Published fees, reviewed in February 2013, list GH¢0.50 for pupils, GH¢1.00 for senior high students, GH¢2.00 for tertiary students with ID and GH¢5.00 for Ghanaian adults, with foreign children at USD 2.00, foreign students with ID at USD 7.00 and adult foreigners at USD 10.00. These figures are long out of date and should be treated as historical only. Enquiries can be directed to the Board's Central and Western Regions office at Cape Coast Castle on +233-3321 32529, or to its head office at 2 Barnes Road, Adabraka, Accra, on 0303 944 030 / 0303 944 028.