Place · site

Fort Christina

1638 · 17th century

Fort Christina was the first Swedish settlement in North America, built in 1638 by an expedition under Peter Minuit on the Christina River, at what is now Wilmington, Delaware, and named after Queen Christina. It was the centre of New Sweden until the colony surrendered to New Netherland in 1655. The site is now part of a national historical park.

Fort Christina
Image: Stilfehler · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

New SwedenDelaware Colony

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Fort Christina. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/fort-christina
MLA
“Fort Christina.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/fort-christina. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Fort Christina.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/fort-christina.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Fort Christina’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/fort-christina (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻