The Governor's Palace

In 1634 the Dutch, under the command of Johan van Walbeeck, conquered Curaçao from the Spaniards. Curaçao was considered a strategically situated island from where the Dutch could try to fight the Spaniards. Besides, Curaçao -and Bonaire too- was highly important for the extraction of salt. The biggest priority was to build a fort to defend the island. The mouth of St. Anna Bay offered an exquisite place for this purpose, and on this spot, the center of the island, Fort Amsterdam was built, around which (beside, rather than around it) Willemstad subsequently emerged.


The palace is on the same spot where the first fort was built in 1635. In the subsequent two years, the first dwelling of the representative of the West India Company, the Director, was added to it. This precursor of the Government’s Palace was a two-storied wooden building, for which most of the material had been brought from Amsterdam.

Originally, the ground floor was used only as a storage depot for the West India Company (WIC). The first floor was used as the Director’s home. Not much later, however, the ground floor was also connected to the residence. Here, there used to be a large dining-hall where Van Walbeeck would receive his guests. Among these guests were the clergy and the officers of the W.I.C. They were entitled to dine with the Directors and the official residence functioned simultaneously as the officers’ mess..


Not much later, the wooden building was replaced by a stone residence which forms the core of the present Palace. In the course of centuries, the style has, however, changed considerably, as can be seen, for instance, from the windows. The oldest part of the building consisted of a closed pavilion on the front side which was split by its two wings with a central hall or passage in the middle. Not long after the first construction, the second pavilion with the monumental double stairs in front of it was added at the back. In 1765, the extension took place with an open gallery on the harbor side and the building remained in this state for approximately a hundred years without changes.

Until 1860, the Government Palace also functioned as the seat of various administrative organs. In the course of years, the spaces under the Palace served as a storage depot, as a prison and as a watch house. The prison was sometimes used in the days of the West India Company to lock up the Director’s opponents. Director Van Liebergen, for example, (1679-1683), spent the greater part of his time on private matters and left the administration up to his staff. As a merchant, he had many competitors. If they became too great a threat for his trading interests, they would end up in prison without any judicial process.

The first complaints about the bad state of the Palace date back to 1761 when Director Bosveld (1761 -1762), who had just taken office, complained about the condition of the building. Apart from that, he found the building too big for his necessities. The British, too, who had conquered the Dutch possessions in the West in the Napoleonic era and who governed Curaçao from 1800 until 1816, found the building unfit for habitation. The British Governors (no less than 18 in 16 years) had the villa Belle Alliance in Pen Street built for themselves.
At the end of the French era, Curaçao and “dependencies” came under the administration of King William I, who had himself represented by a governor. Both Governor Kikkert (1816-1819) and his successor Cantzlaar (1820-1828) preferred La Belle Alliance to the Palace. Governor Baron Van Raders (1836-1845) preferred Plantation House Habaai, property of the Van der Meulen family. There, a romance developed that led to his marriage to Jan van der Meulen’s eldest daughter.

From the middle of the 19th century, the history of the Palace is characterized by continuous and intensive renovations. The introduction of steam navigation had brought about a radical change in the social life of the European colonies, because for the first time it now became possible for European ladies to undertake the passage to the West or the East with a certain degree of comfort. With that, the old style of working and living together, which until then had characterized the existence of the civil servants, disappeared. The joint meals in the Palace of men among themselves belonged to the past, while the spouses of the Governors wanted to see a style and comfort in the Palace that was comparable with what was customary in the mother country.

Consequently, it need not be surprising that since this time the letters of the Governors to The Hague go more probingly into the condition of the building. Thus, Governor Van Lansberge (1856-1859), for example, unlike his distant predecessor Van Bosveld, found the building much too small. He had nine children, which forced him to reserve the dining hall for his own family and to use the large hall when he entertained guests to dinner. Another complaint was the continuous and unbearable stench that was caused by the rum and the limestone which at the time were stored on the ground floor. In 1866, only four days after De Rouville (1866-1870) had made his entrance as Governor into the Palace, he wrote a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Colonies, in which he stated that only with great disgust could he write about the condition of the present building; it was time for a thorough renovation. De Rouville consequently preferred to move into a dwelling of his own in Otrobanda, the stately villa Belvedere.

In the years 1868-1870, intensive renovation plans were made. The main objective of all these plans was to give the outward appearance of the building its dignity back and simultaneously create more space. The eventual renovation remained limited, however, to joining the open gallery to the main building, converting the projected balcony room into a “hanging” balcony and placing classic ornaments on the new front façade and on the old back façade. In this process, the original simplicity of style at the back disappeared. The renovations were also related to roofing, which involved removing the graciously curled beams.

But this renovation did not make the Palace durably livable either. In the period that Governor Barge was in office (1890-1901), a new renovation was considered necessary. During the renovation activities, the Governor lived with his family at Plantation House Quintz, the present Plantation House Groot Davelaar. Apparently, this renovation was sufficient to comply with the requirements of those days, for not until during the governorship of Professor Römer (1983-1990), was a big restoration considered necessary. During the time that the Palace was being renovated, the Governor stayed at Plantation House Santa Barbara.

The history of the Palace would be incomplete, if it were not mentioned that the Directors of the WIC also had a countryhouse at their disposal where they could spend the weekend. To this end, the plantations of Hato and Blenheim were used. (As a matter of fact, other plantations, such as Blauw, were also used). For some time, the Governors also had a vessel of their own at their disposal, a so-called “ponchi”, which was propelled by sculling with an oar. This little boat was necessary to visit Otrobanda before the pontoon bridge was constructed. Besides that, it was also used to go fishing in Schottegat or to go catching crabs with the ladies.

Nowadays it is not necessary to make any other living accommodation available for the Governor besides the use of the Palace. What few people know is that, in addition to the Palace, the Governor can nevertheless consider another space his. At the Ministry of General Affairs in the Hague, the Governors of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba can make use of a room which is always at their disposal, if they so desire.

As for the Governor’s Palace in Willemstad, it is now important to preserve this old historic building for future generations. The method of construction which was used in the 17th century, using stamped coral stones as a basis for cement, means that the walls of the Palace suffer from so-called wall cancer. The salt in the coral attracts so much moisture in some places that even painting it once a year is not sufficient to keep the walls clean and neat. It is, therefore, not surprising that the care for this building forms an almost daily topic of attention for the Secretariat of the Governor.

Thanks to the National Archives.