Paramaribo's old town: a walk through 350 years of history

Paramaribo’s old town has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2002, and that’s no accident: it’s one of the last surviving 17th-century Dutch colonial city centers in the world where the wooden character is still largely intact. Three hours of walking and you’ll understand why.

Start at Fort Zeelandia

Begin at Fort Zeelandia on the Suriname river. The fort dates from 1640, built by the English, then taken by the Dutch in the Treaty of Breda in 1667 — the same swap that left New Amsterdam (now New York) with the English.

Walk to the riverside and look out over the Waterkant: row after row of wooden facades, built between 1700 and 1900, mixing Dutch, English, and local building styles. The wood is mostly greenheart, a Surinamese hardwood that lasts a hundred-plus years in this climate.

Down Gravenstraat

From Independence Square you walk Gravenstraat toward the Central Market. Along the way:

• The St. Peter and Paul Cathedral: the largest wooden cathedral in Latin America, built between 1883 and 1885. Entirely greenheart and cedar.
• The Neveh Shalom Synagogue and the Keizerstraat Mosque — literally next door to each other, the symbol every Suriname guide mentions and which here is genuinely true.
• Wooden mansions, most rebuilt after the city fires of 1821 and 1832.

The Central Market

The Central Market at the Waterkant is the closing piece of the walk. It’s not a tourist market: this is where Surinamese pick up their pom ingredients, weigh their pesi (beans), and buy fish you won’t recognize from Western markets.

What to taste

• Bara: spiced fried dough from the Hindustani kitchen
• Telo: fried cassava with bakkeljauw (salted cod) — the breakfast of Paramaribo
• Pom: oven dish of grated tayer, chicken, and sour orange — typical Sunday food

Practical tips

Read before you go

• The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod — historical novel about plantation Suriname
• About the Love of a Child by Astrid Roemer — Paramaribo through the eyes of an uprooted protagonist

For a deeper story about the plantations outside the city, also see our guide to Brownsberg in 3 days.