Historic Town of Grand-Bassam World Heritage Site

Official name

Historic Town of Grand-Bassam | UNESCO

Country

Ivory Coast | Map

Continent

Africa

Location

5.1958° Lat, -3.7363° Lon | Map

Code

1322

Time Zone

Africa/Abidjan (GMT, +0000)

Current Time

Category

Cultural

Description

Inscribed 2012. The first capital of Côte d’Ivoire, the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam, is an example of a late 19 th - and early 20 th -century colonial town planned with quarters specializing in commerce, administration, housing for Europeans and for Africans. The site includes the N’zima African fishing village alongside colonial architecture marked by functional houses with galleries, verandas and gardens. Grand-Bassam was the most important port, economic and judicial centre of Côte d’Ivoire. It bears witness to the complex social relations between Europeans and Africans, and to the subsequent independence movement. As a vibrant centre of the territory of French trading posts in the Gulf of Guinea, which preceded modern Côte d’Ivoire, it attracted populations from all parts of Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean Levant.