Historic Town of Grand-Bassam Ivory Coast
The first capital of Ivory Coast, the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam, is an example of a late 19th- and early 20th-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.
Continent: Africa
Country: Ivory Coast
Category: Cultural
Criterion: (III)(IV)
Date of Inscription: 2012
Colonial Town
The historic town of Grand-Bassam is an example of a colonial town built at the end of the 19th century and during the early 20th century. It follows a planning concept based on the specialisation of quarters for commerce, administration, housing for Europeans and housing for Africans. It embodies, on the one hand, colonial architecture and town planning, based on the principles of functionalism and hygiene of the time, and adapted to climatic conditions, and, on the other hand, an village N'zima which demonstrates the permanency of indigenous cultures.
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| Grand Bassam |
