Oranjestad

Oranjestad began as a nameless village by Paardenbaai, the "Bay of Horses", a natural harbour deep enough for large ships and named after the horses shipped from it to Jamaica and elsewhere. Settlers had farmed modest plantations along the south coast since the mid-18th century, but the village grew in the 1790s, when trade restrictions eased and traders and craftsmen moved to the bay. Sephardic Jewish merchants with links to Curaçao were prominent among them, exporting cattle, dyewood and later gold, and smuggling imported goods to the Venezuelan coast. Fort Zoutman went up beside the harbour in 1798, and the island's commander moved here from Savaneta.

In the 1820s the village was named Oranjestad after King William I of the Netherlands, and the discovery of gold in 1824 drew new settlers. Visitors were not always impressed: one described it in 1837 as more a heap of scattered houses than a city. In 1860 about 1,000 of Aruba's 2,849 people lived here, with the fishing families concentrated in Rancho and the government plantation at Socotoro growing cochineal and later aloe.

Oil changed everything. In the 1920s part of the harbour was reclaimed, and in 1928 a refinery opened beside the port; it was the target of an attack on 16 February 1942 during the Second World War, closed in 1958 and was later replaced by a beach resort. The oil boom brought prosperity and grand town houses. Since then tourism has reshaped the town: cargo moved to Barcadera in 2016, leaving the harbour to cruise ships, and the tram arrived in 2012.

Oranjestad is the island's administrative and cultural centre, and its Papiamento name, Playa, is the one many Arubans use. Its streets mix Dutch colonial architecture with Caribbean colour; as the government took more interest in the island's heritage, old buildings and houses in the centre were restored and painted, the lime-coloured City Hall on Wilhelminastraat among them. Fort Zoutman, home of the Historical Museum, also hosts a weekly evening of folkloric dancers, drumming, food and art for visitors.

Carnival, celebrated publicly on Aruba since 1955, is the high point of the year, with weeks of music competitions, pageants, street parties and parades, and the year ends with the Dande Festival, when dozens of singers perform the traditional New Year serenades. The town also has a long Jewish history, from the Sephardic traders of the 1790s to the Beth Israel congregation, founded in 1956.

Football has a solid local following: SV Dakota, SV Racing Club Aruba and SV River Plate Aruba, all based in Oranjestad, play in the island's top division. The town has also produced performers known abroad, including Dave Benton, who won the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia, and Bobby Farrell of Boney M. Daily manners are relaxed but polite, and English and Spanish are widely heard alongside Papiamento in the shops of the centre.

Oranjestad had about 28,700 residents in 2020, making it the most populous of Aruba's eight regions; it is divided administratively into Oranjestad West and Oranjestad East. As the capital it holds the seat of government, the University of Aruba, which teaches law and economics, and Colegio Arubano, the island's largest secondary school.

The economy depends on tourism. Cruise passengers come ashore beside the centre, and shopping has shifted from Main Street towards L. G. Smith Boulevard and the malls near the terminal. Main Street itself was pedestrianised, replanted and given a tram in a scheme to revive the old retail centre. The airline Tiara Air has its head office in the town, and plans are under way for a marina to give yachts and fishing boats more berths.

Daily life is relaxed and car-dependent: the centre is busiest when cruise ships are in, and most residents drive; and the town spreads out from the old centre into residential districts towards Eagle Beach and the island's interior.

Oranjestad eats like the rest of Aruba, a blend of Caribbean, Latin American and Dutch cooking. The national dish is keshi yena, a hollowed Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced meat, often chicken, with olives and raisins, then baked. Everyday food includes stoba, a slow stew of goat, beef or chicken; pastechi, fried pastry turnovers; funchi, a cornmeal dish like polenta; and pan bati, a slightly sweet griddle bread.

Fish comes straight off the boats at the wharf in the centre — red snapper, wahoo and mahi-mahi among them — and is often served criollo style with funchi and pan bati. Conch, called kalko, is another local favourite. Small snèk bars serve fried snacks and plates of the day, while Dutch bar food such as bitterballen and kroket and the Venezuelan arepa have become everyday food as well.

To drink there is Balashi, the beer brewed on the island since 1999, and at Christmas ponche crema. The tap water, desalinated from the sea, is safe and good to drink.