[2] Owing to its historical importance and testimony to the Atlantic slave trade, Fort Conraadsburg was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 along with several other castles in Ghana.

[4] Before the fort was built, the Dutch used the hill as a gun-position to bombard the Portuguese in the year 1637.

To prevent others from doing the same tactic against the Portuguese, the Dutch constructed a fortified earthwork the following year[5] In the 1660s, the then Elmina Castle Director General J. Valckenburgh changed the earthen fortification with a permanent fort made up of local sandstone and named it Coenraadsburg.

[1] The fort was well-garrisoned so the Dutch used it as a prison for European convicts and also as a disciplinary institution for their officers who are disobedient to their laws.

[5] In recent years, the fort has been used as a prison, a hospital and a rest house.