Old Fort, Bagamoyo

The Old Fort in Bagamoyo, Tanzania is one of the historic building built by an Arab trader; Abdallah Sulleiman, during the 1860s. By then, it was a stand-alone two-storey building in Bagamoyo and continue to be used as a residential house until the 1880s.

Between 1880 and 1919, the Old Fort was used by the Germans to serve as a military base. From 1920 to 1974, both the British colonial government and the independent Tanganyika/Tanzania government used the building as a prison.

Between 1974 and the end of the 1980s or early 1990s, the Old Fort was used as a police station and then used as a hostel for conservation students until 1996/7. Since then to date, the building is used as a tourists’ destination as well as offices for the Antiquities Department in Bagamoyo.