Grand-Bassam

Rank: UNESCO

Wonder Type: Cultural

Country: Ivory Coast

Best of: Architecture, Colonial, Town

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. [More Details]