San Nicolas – Rais.cw

San Nicolas can't really be called a bario: no residential core, church or schools. Only the landhuis has stood here for centuries on a lonely height. Still worth some attention, because it was once:

The largest salt producer of Curaçao

At San Nicolas, on the Santa Martha Bay, considerable "salt harvests" were obtained, especially in dry years. It is one of the smallest plantations in the west of Curaçao (339 ha) but, with 26,000 barrels a year in the 1880s and still in 1910, was the island's most important salt supplier.

In those days well over 90% of Curaçao's salt production came from the Santa Martha Bay: Plantation Groot Santa Martha delivered 20,000 barrels a year and Klein Santa Martha 6,000. Salt was white gold, and "salt quarrels" between the owners of San Nicolas and their nearest neighbours — Groot and Klein Santa Martha — were constant. Salt lying in the border areas of the plantations was the cause.

Two-thirds of the plantation's income came from salt, and San Nicolas therefore had a high valuation. At the exit of the inner water, Boka Santa Martha, the ruin of a salt barn stood for a long time.

Panoramic view

San Nicolas was already laid out in 1696 on the entire western shore of the Santa Martha Bay. The plantation landscape is hilly, although no hill is higher than 100 m. At 82 m, Seru di Jantji, north-west of the landhuis and on the northern border with Pos Spaño, is the highest summit. Jantji was probably someone who lived nearby.

Also north-west of the landhuis lies Seru di Kalki, 76 m high. Seru Bo Kuki lies on the coast, west of the landhuis. "Bo kuki" means: "You get your way", "You are served at your every wish". It is well over 71 m high and lies west of Playa Franki. There are also various elevations that define the undulating landscape. The lonely landhuis of San Nicolas is built on such an elevation with a spacious terrace and a unique, panoramic view over the Santa Martha Bay. The eastern border of the plantation is formed by the inner water of this bay, so that San Nicolas is surrounded by water for at least 50 percent. It is further bounded by the former plantations Pos Spañó and Groot Santa Martha.

Franki

San Nicolas lies on the south-west coast of Bándabou but, although on the coast, has few beaches. The best known is Playa Franki, a small and sheltered beach with coral stones, south-west of the landhuis. Then there is also Boka Santa Martha, better known as Coral Cliff, referring to the first hotel built there.

Slave bell

The house consists of a high core with galleries along the long sides. The kitchen is built on the south-west corner of the terrace. The wide rain tank with saddle roof is on the east side, with next to it, on the south-east corner, a bathhouse, or little bath pavilion, where one could wash with rainwater.

A striking detail is the pillar on the terrace on which the slave bell was formerly mounted. It was used to ring the new working day in and out. Both the pillar and the bell are still almost intact, which is unique on Curaçao. By the landhuis there are also cattle corrals and barns.

Besides salt, San Nicolas also supplied divi-divi pods for use in tanning and the preparation of ink, indigo and dyewood. Livestock farming was also practised.

In 1902, coal was found while digging a well. Curaçao was just developing as a coaling station, so expectations ran high, but unfortunately — after expert investigation — mining proved not to be profitable.

Maria Niemand

In her collection Verhalen uit het Verleden (Stories from the Past), Els Langenfeld tells of a remarkable love story that took place around 1750 in the remote parts of San Nicolas: the free mulatto woman Maria Niemand lived there at that time, and the shon of the plantation in those days, Adolph Cratz, was very much in love with her. In 1753 he gave her and her 4 children part of the parcel Lange tuin, which then still belonged to San Nicolas. He also gave her the enslaved boy Fernando. Both the piece of land and this boy were, after Cratz's death, transferred to Maria and her children, and she named the piece of land Sint Eustatius, or Statie or Statia.

Maria later married Johan Andreas Schaup, and he gave her four children his surname. The marriage did not last long, but divorce was not possible then: they remained "separated spouses", though the joint estate was divided and each went his own way.

In 1778 Maria bought plantation Zorgvliet or Korporaal near Jan Kock, including inventory consisting of 3 enslaved people, 166 goats, 45 sheep and some pieces of furniture made of fire-wood. From her mother, the free negress Dominga van Vadertje, Maria inherited in 1790 the piece of land Matancia near plantation Wakawa, and she also owned in Otrobanda a spacious dwelling house on the north side of the Roodeweg, old number 126.

Maria died in 1799 and left 100 pesos for the poor fund of each of the three churches on Curaçao.

The Schaup brothers

In 1800 her sons Jurriaan and Jan Hendrik Schaup bought the little garden Statia from their mother's estate. Jan Hendrik had a years-long relationship with Mariana, an enslaved woman who "belonged to his property". They had 4 children and 2 grandchildren and later married in law.

Jan Hendrik died around 1831; Mariana inherited, among other things, the piece of land Statia. Because of high medical costs in connection with her illness and the subsequent funeral, all possessions were auctioned, except the little garden Statia, which remained the home of her children and grandchildren. That remained so until 1869, when the family had to sell this piece of land too for lack of finances.

Shon Cai Winkel

Back to San Nicolas. The plantation was bought in 1942 by the well-known Curaçao businessman C.N. — Shon Cai — Winkel and used as a country residence. Cai paid 25,000 guilders for the estate, and the traditionally white landhuis was painted pink-red. It happened like this: a disastrous fire had once destroyed his shop premises in the city, but Cai won the top prize in the lottery, and the colour of the winning ticket was pink-red. So the newly built business in Punda was called Casa Rosada, and from then on all the Winkel family's possessions were painted red. So too Cai Winkel's town house, the only two-storey monument on the Scharlooweg, behind the cinema, which incidentally is still painted red.

Cai was also the founder of the VKC, the Volunteer Corps of Curaçao, and in that connection his bust stands at the entrance of Fòrti in Punda. Why here? Rafael Simon Urbina, an opponent of president Juan Vicente Gomez in Venezuela, had gone into hiding on Curaçao — at Rio Canario. On 8 June 1929, at 9.15 p.m., together with a group of revolutionaries, he attacked Fort Amsterdam, with the aim of obtaining weapons for his struggle. In the raid on Forti three soldiers were killed by the Venezuelans, and the governor and the police chief were also taken as hostages. The governor had, however, managed shortly before to have the Venezuelan government warned that Urbina was on his way, as a result of which the attack failed after all. The hostages were back the next morning.

The attack on Forti was the reason for Cai Winkel to found the Volunteer Corps, so that Curaçao could be better defended internally and not be too dependent on distant Netherlands. (See also the page Rooi Canarie.)

In 1980 plantation San Nicolas was sold and was to be turned into a tourist project with, among other things, a marina and holiday villas, but this plan stranded.

Locations in San Nicolas

Sint Eustatius or Statia lies in the north of San Nicolas.
Sintón is a place on the coast, south-east of Boca San Nicolas, where the boulders protrude into the sea.
Mawela (mamma, grandmother) is a place on the coast, west of the inlet.
Seru Spanjo, which lies close to the sea, has a cave with an opening in the east where, reportedly, human bones and remains of old pottery were found. For brua (black magic) people looked for bones here, and it was told with certainty that evil spirits dwell here.