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Rang

Dutch gables in Caribbean colours

Willemstad

A waterfront of Dutch-style gabled houses painted yellow, pink, blue and green on the island of Curaçao.

Handelskade in Willemstad, Curacao. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Photographed by user Coolcaesar on September 27, 2024. This photo was taken with a camera whose clock was still set to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Willemstad is handelskade yellow

Willemstad is the capital of Curaçao, a Caribbean island in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its harbour front, the Handelskade, looks like a canal street in Amsterdam, with tall narrow houses and curved gables, but in tropical colours with white trim. A well-known story explains why. In 1817 the governor, Albert Kikkert, is said to have ordered that buildings no longer be white, because the glare of sun on white walls gave him headaches. It is often added that he had an interest in a paint business; that part is hard to prove. Whatever the cause, the habit of colour stayed. A floating bridge swings open to let ships through. The city is a World Heritage Site.

Handelskade yellow#F2C230Coral pink#F08C7ACaribbean blue#3F8FD1Mint green#8FD1B0Gable white#F7F7F4

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Willemstad" on Wikipedia. If you know Willemstad and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇮🇳 Birthplace of Krishna, home of HoliMathuraKrishna's birthplace celebrates Holi for more than a week, with processions, music and coloured powder.🇮🇳 The yellow French quarterPondicherryThe old French quarter by the sea is painted mustard yellow with white trim, shaded by bougainvillea.🇮🇳 Yellow taxis, red and white sarisKolkataYellow Ambassador taxis, red-brick colonial offices and white saris with red borders mark Bengal's capital.🇮🇳 City of the kaali-peeliMumbaiBlack-and-yellow taxis, known as kaali-peeli, are the moving colour of India's largest city.🇮🇳 Goa's Latin QuarterFontainhasA small quarter of Panaji where Portuguese-era houses are painted yellow, blue and red with white trim.🇻🇳 The yellow townHoi AnAn old trading port in central Vietnam whose shophouses are washed in yellow and hung with silk lanterns.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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