Rais.cw Fundashon Famia, Núkleo di Bario

Veeris

West of Veeris lies the inner bay of Piscadera with fishing and yacht harbor
Veeris on Werbata
Landhuis Veeris front
Landhuis Veeris
Interior of Landhuis Veeris
Interior of the plantation house (2)
The resort and shopping center are in Veeris on the Piscadera Bay
The street names refer to inventors, such as Graham Bell who developed the telephone
The Graham Bellstraat in Veeris
Veerisberg

Veeris

The Three Brothers (De Drie Gebroeders) are, from east to west, Seru Pretu or Zwarte Berg (Black Mountain), which lies by Wishi, the Veerisberg on the former plantation Veeris, and the Jack Evertzberg on Klein Piscadera. The last two hills lie directly on the Piscadera Bay.

The Veerisberg (131 m) lies on the eastern side of the inner water of Piscadera and is named after the former owner Abraham Veeris. He himself called his plantation De Drie Gebroeders, and during the 19th century it was extended with the surrounding plantations Westerveld and De Eendracht. But as usual on Curaçao, the name De Drie Gebroeders disappeared from popular speech and the alias "Veeris" stayed attached to the estate, which was also called Veeres, Vers or Union.

Eskildsen

Veeris had an area of 108 hectares and possessed a fairly large herd, in 1888 consisting of 250 head. Owner from 1882 was the district master of the 4th and 5th district, J.P. Eskildsen, chief clerk at Finance and a striking and progressive personality who stood up for the poor population. In 1885 he came into conflict with more than 50 plantation owners, who resisted his advice to rent out public pasture land to poor farmers. According to the plantation owners this would violate their grazing rights and draw labour away from the plantations. They also feared an increase in cattle theft on their plantations. Eskildsen contradicted this and said that the poor farmers were in fact peaceful, decent and hard-working people.

After the governor had given special permission for it, Eskildsen did succeed in 1886 in regularly issuing parcels at Westpunt for farming or house building.

Eskildsen further held that the westerly plantations could very well be profitable livestock businesses if the owners, who lived in the city, did not live on a grand scale. In 1888 he put forward his own plantation Veeris as an example of a profitable livestock business and published his accounts, which showed, among other things, that he kept labour costs low by deploying, among others, young enslaved people, infirm and older workers as herders.

Trial plantings

Around 1900 there was also a modest sisal culture at, among other places, Veeris, for which fibre agaves from Suriname and Trinidad were imported. Rubber trees were also planted, but both trial cultures yielded little result.

What did yield promising results, but had no follow-up, was an experiment in 1908 in which 6 kinds of maize were sown. Through fertilising and working the soil it then turned out that a greater yield could be obtained.

Furthermore, cow dung was collected at Veeris, charcoal was burnt, there was a vegetable garden and quite a lot of livestock, including small livestock such as goats, chickens, turkeys and pigeons.

Phosphate

According to theoretical considerations, phosphate should lie at De Drie Gebroeders. In 1951 a geographer did carry out research at Veeris, but mining proved not to be profitable, any more than at the nearby Seru di Parasasa, the hill between Zjaro and Laman di Zaquitó.

Around 1960 the neighbourhood Veeris was split in two by the construction of a main road from Otrobanda towards the airport and Bandabou. Veeris is nowadays being developed as an industrial/commercial area. The landhuis, probably built at the end of the 19th century, is offered for sale together with a mangasina (former storehouse), an outbuilding and cattle corrals.

Basinto, Hamber and Mina Scharbaai

Basinto near Veeris, so called after the first owner Baas Jacintho, and Hamber, a corruption of Baas Hamer (1879), are neighbourhoods close to Veeris. In the north-west of Hamber, under a tamarind tree, lay the grave of Nana, once a well-known personality after whom the area and the large rooi east of the Savaan are named.

Wilhelmina Scharbaay was around 1880 another well-known personality in the area. She owned the estate east of Veeris that was also known as Buena Esperanza. For orientation: Mina Scharbaai lies north of the present shopping centre Sambil.

(See also Mina Scharbaai.)

With thanks to François van der Hoeven, Christel Monsanto and At Home Real Estate.

Sources

  • Renkema: Het Curaçaosch plantagebedrijf in de 19e eeuw
  • van Soest: Olie als water
  • Ministerie SOAW: Buurtprofiel Veeris
  • P. Brenneker: Sambumbu, various editions