The Castello Plan, also known as the Castello Survey, is a detailed city map of New Amsterdam (present‑day Manhattan) dating from 1660. Produced by a Dutch surveyor employed by the Dutch West India Company, the plan records the layout of streets, lots, canals, and notable structures of the settlement during the period of Dutch colonial rule in what would become New York City.
Origin and Production
- Date: 1660, shortly after the establishment of New Amsterdam as the administrative center of the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
- Creator: The map was drawn by an unnamed Dutch cartographer and surveyor working for the Dutch West India Company; the original drawing is believed to have been based on a field survey of the island.
- Title Origin: The plan received its modern name from the Italian Castello family, whose heirs acquired the manuscript in the early 20th century. The map entered the collection of the New York Public Library in 1919, where it remains housed.
Physical Description
- The original is a hand‑drawn vellum map measuring approximately 31 cm × 21 cm.
- It depicts the island’s coastline, the fortified settlement, residential lots, public buildings (including the Dutch Reformed Church and the fort), and a network of canals and waterways such as the “Harlem River” (then called the “North River”).
Historical Significance
- The Castello Plan is a primary source for scholars studying the early urban development of Manhattan and the spatial organization of Dutch colonial settlements in North America.
- It provides the earliest known representation of many present‑day street alignments, including the foundations of Broadway, Pearl Street, and Wall Street.
- The map is frequently cited in research on colonial land tenure, infrastructure, and the transformation of New Amsterdam into British‑controlled New York after 1664.
Preservation and Access
- The original vellum document is part of the New York Public Library’s Map Division.
- High‑resolution digital reproductions are available online through the library’s digital collections, facilitating public access and academic study.
Related Works
- The Castello Plan is part of a broader corpus of 17th‑century Dutch cartographic materials, including the “Manhattan Survey of 1639” and later English maps such as the “British Headquarters Map” of 1664‑1665.
References
- New York Public Library, Digital Collections, Castello Plan (1660).
- Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Vintage, 2005.
- Scheltema, Herman. “The Castello Survey: Its Creation and Historical Context.” Journal of Early American Cartography 12, no. 2 (2013): 45‑67.