Fort Christian

Fort Christian is the oldest standing structure in continuous use in the Virgin Islands and the oldest Danish fortification under the American flag. The first Danish colonizers landed on Saint Thomas in 1666 but did not establish a permanent settlement. After a second Danish group under the charter of the Danish West India Company established a settlement on Saint Thomas in 1672, work on Fort Christian began, and under Governor Jorgen Iversen it was constructed between 1672 and 1680. In 1678, during Denmark's European war with France, the fort had progressed enough for the settlement to fend off an attack by French forces from neighboring Saint Croix. Known then as Christiansfort, it became the first seat of government in the Danish West Indies and, besides its military role, housed the colony's first Lutheran church and governor's residence. In 1874, a major renovation converted it into a police station, demolishing the north curtain wall and the seventeenth-century Tryborg Tower in the courtyard and moving the military barracks to what is now the Legislature building. Its new facade became the Gothic Revival clock tower that remains its trademark, and it later also served as the island's prison. In 1971, the Virgin Island Museum of Fine Arts moved into the lower cell level while the building still operated as a police station, prison, and court facility. After the police station, prison, and Civil Defense relocated during the 1980s, the museum occupied the entire fortification, and Fort Christian was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.

Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands · United States