Van Engelen – Rais.cw

South of Cas Cora lies the former plantation Van Engelen, formerly also called Hooyberg, Vredenberg, Mount Vernon or Mount Vermount. It was laid out around 1700 by Jan van Engelen, who built a landhuis on the fairly high hill in the middle of the terrain. Jan was the son of Willibrord van Engelen, a former director of Curaçao who in 1686 had founded a fairly large plantation at Bándabou, which he called Engelenberg. In popular speech, however, this remained known as Cas Abou, whereas, on the other hand, his son's plantation did remain known in popular speech as Van Engelen.

In the 19th century a new owner, Juriaan Crisson, decided to call his plantation Mount Vernon. This was to avoid confusion with the nearby plantation Kas Kòrá, which around 1851 was also called Vredenberg. But the name Van Engelen proved inseparably bound up with this small plantation of 34 hectares. Van Engelen supplied some fruit, maize and vegetables for its own use and around 1940 was for years a supplier of laraha peels for the production of Curaçao, the liqueur.

In the past it was often auctioned because of failed harvests. As early as 1818 it was described as a "beautiful and well-situated country place or Plantation", and around 1850, like many small plantations around the Schottegat, it served as a weekend and country residence for civil servants and businessmen.

Around 1900 experiments were still made with tobacco and the ben bean (moringa), from which ben oil was extracted for the perfume industry, but neither was a success. Besides Van Engelen, aloe vera was at that time grown only at Plantersrust and Brievengat.

Van Engelen around the turn of the century

Henriquez was rather active and carried out trials with sisal and hemp. With a trial planting he proved that sisal (used, among other things, in the production of ropes) could indeed thrive on our island. Henriquez even set up a rope-walk, but the sales of rope proved insufficient. He also received a subsidy to experiment on his own terrain and on domain land, but the maintenance later left much to be desired, after which the government took over the trial planting under its own management.

Van Engelen lay on a considerable terrain but was only parcelled out in the 20th century, as a result of which the empty landhuis is completely surrounded by luxurious villas, apartments and commercial businesses.