[3] In its early life, the castle was primarily used in the gold and ivory trade, but under Dano-Norwegian control it increasingly dealt with slaves.

Consequently, Denmark-Norway purchased adjoining land and expanded the building, naming it Fort Christiansborg after the reigning Danish King Christian V.[1] This is not to be confused with the slightly later royal palace in Copenhagen.

Shortly after that, a Portuguese ship commanded by Julião de Campos Barreto visited the fort and agreed to purchase it.

The fort was abandoned on 29 August 1682 after the garrison mutinied and it became clear that Portuguese traders could not compete with the other Gold Coast powers.

In 1694, Assameni sold the fort back to Denmark-Norway for 50 marks of gold (400 troy ounces, worth £200,000 to £250,000 in 2008) but retained the keys, which are still in the ethnic group's possession to this day.

The additional store rooms, garrison quarters, platforms, bastions and houses resulted in the castle being four times the size of the original fort.

President John Kufuor argued that his government should not sit at the castle due to its previous association with slavery and also because its facilities were inadequate.

Many international dignitaries have visited the castle while in the region, including U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Additional rooms were built in order to accommodate Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1961, one year after Ghana became a republic.

[12]In 2007, the opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ghana (the National Democratic Congress, NDC) stormed out of a parliamentary debate on whether to take out a $50m loan to build a new presidential palace.

MPs from President John Agyekum Kufuor's New Patriotic Party voted unanimously in favour of taking the loan from India.

This led to the then general secretary to the opposition NDC to describe the new Flagstaff House as a "hen coop only fit for rearing chicken".