Jan Conny House Ruins, Pokesu

The Jan Conny House Ruins at Pokesu, also known as Prince's Town, are the surviving material remains of a house and a defensive wall linked to Jan Conny — also written John Canoe, John Connie or Gyan Kwaw — the Ahanta merchant-chief and military leader who acted as broker for the Brandenburg-Prussians before effectively taking over Fort Gross Friedrichsburg. The site sits in the Ahanta West District of Ghana's Western Region, in a coastal town lying between Axim to the west and Sekondi-Takoradi to the east, about 5 km east of Fort St Antonio on Manfro Hill.

The story attached to these stones is what draws most visitors. After Brandenburg sold its Gold Coast possessions to the Dutch in 1717 without Conny's knowledge, he took over the fort and held it for roughly seven years, trading with all nations and resisting Dutch attempts to retake it, until the Dutch ousted him in 1724. When they recovered the fort, they found he had removed enough of its stone to build a personal mansion and a dividing wall.

The German Archaeological Institute, which runs a project on the Brandenburg-Prussian forts in their local context, records that it works to preserve and present these material remains. Its photo captions identify "Jan Conny's house at Princes Town, Ghana" and "remains of what is said to have been a defensive wall built by Jan Conny with materials from Fort Gross Friedrichsburg." The same project notes that descendant communities from the Americas, especially the Bahamas, contribute historical insight — a reminder that this is a living heritage connection, not only an archaeological one.

What a visitor can reasonably expect is limited and should be set honestly: exposed stone remains rather than a restored building or an interpreted museum. The evidence reviewed does not establish opening hours, entry fees, guided-tour availability, facilities or site condition, so these should be confirmed locally before travelling. The site is also reported in Ghanaian broadcast media as "Jan Conny House Ruins at Pokesu."

One point remains unresolved in the sources read: whether the "Jan Conny House Ruins" is a structure separate from Fort Gross Friedrichsburg itself, or part of the same complex. Visitors should treat the two as closely related but not assume they are identical.