Oranjestad is the capital of Aruba, a Dutch Caribbean island located just north of Venezuela.
The city was established around Fort Zoutman, built in 1796 to defend Aruba’s main harbor. It was later named Oranjestad in honor of the Dutch royal House of Orange. The fort remains one of the city’s best-known historic landmarks, alongside the Willem III Tower.
Oranjestad is Aruba’s administrative and commercial center. It contains government offices, shopping districts, museums, cruise facilities, and the island’s main urban waterfront. Aruba is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so the capital is not a capital of an independent sovereign state.
A common mix-up is San Nicolas, Aruba’s second-largest town and a center of the island’s oil-refining history. Nearby Willemstad is the capital of Curaçao, while Kralendijk is the capital of Bonaire.