St. Thomas, USVI: Charlotte Amalie, Blackbeard's Castle & the Danish Skytsborg Tower of 1679

St. Thomas is the most populous of the three United States Virgin Islands, and its capital, Charlotte Amalie, is one of the oldest colonial towns in the Caribbean, founded by the Danes in the 1600s and built on a deep harbor that made it the busiest free port in the West Indies. The island became an American territory in 1917, when the United States bought the Danish West Indies from Denmark for twenty-five million dollars, and its residents are American citizens who require no passport to visit from the mainland. The harbor of Charlotte Amalie is still lined with the vaulted stone warehouses the Danes built in the 1700s to store sugar, rum, and molasses, now converted into the duty-free shops that make the town one of the premier shopping destinations in the Caribbean.

Skytsborg Tower and Blackbeard's Castle

On a hill above the harbor stands Skytsborg, "the sky tower," a stone watchtower built by the Danes in 1679 to guard the entrance to Charlotte Amalie. The tower is one of five National Historic Landmarks in the United States Virgin Islands, and it is today a boutique hotel and rum-tasting room known as Blackbeard's Castle, though the connection to the pirate Edward Teach is legend rather than documented history. According to [Blackbeard's Castle](https://blackbeardscastle.com/), the tower was built in 1679 by the Danes as Skytsborg and is now a National Historic Landmark perched above the harbor, one of five such landmarks in the territory, where visitors can climb the original watchtower for the best view in Charlotte Amalie and enjoy a complimentary rum tasting. The hilltop is also home to a collection of life-size bronze pirate statues and gardens that look out over the entire harbor and the cruise ships that dock below.

Magens Bay and the North Coast

On the north coast, Magens Bay is the beach that National Geographic once ranked among the most beautiful in the world, a mile-long crescent of white sand backed by green hills and coconut palms, with calm, clear water protected by a headland that keeps the surf gentle year-round. The beach was once the private retreat of the Danish colonial governors, and it is now a public park managed by a conservation trust that keeps the surrounding hills undeveloped. The drive over the mountain from Charlotte Amalie to Magens Bay, called the Mountain Road, passes through the heart of the island's rainforest and offers panoramic views of the British Virgin Islands to the east and the open Atlantic to the north.

The Free Port and the Crucian Connection

St. Thomas has been a free port since the 1700s, when the Danes declared the harbor open to ships of all nations, and the town grew rich on the trade in sugar, rum, and enslaved people, the latter auctioned in the market that stood where the Emancipation Garden is now. After emancipation in 1848, the island's economy shifted, and after the American purchase in 1917, the free port status was preserved, making Charlotte Amalie the shopping capital of the Caribbean. The island is the gateway to St. John and St. Croix, its two sister islands, and the ferry from Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay, St. John, takes twenty minutes across the Pillsbury Sound.

A Mimosa for the Harbor

A Caribbean morning in Charlotte Amalie calls for a bright, tropical sparkling drink that can match the harbor view. A [pineapple coconut mimosa](/recipes/pineapple-coconut-mimosa) is the natural match, the tropical pineapple and coconut echoing the island setting and the bubbles lifting the warm trade-wind morning. A [tropical mango mimosa](/recipes/tropical-mango-mimosa) is equally lovely, its ripe mango sweetness a bright companion to the turquoise water of Magens Bay.

**Reference Links:**

- Blackbeard's Castle (1679 Skytsborg Tower, National Historic Landmark, Charlotte Amalie): [Blackbeard's Castle](https://blackbeardscastle.com/)

- United States Virgin Islands (1917 purchase from Denmark, American territory): [Visit USVI](https://www.visitusvi.com/)