Fort Kastela ( id, Benteng Kastela) is a ruined Portuguese fortress located at the southwest coast of

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...

. It is famous for being the first colonial fortification constructed in the

Spice Islands A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices are ...

(Maluku) of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Built by the Portuguese in 1522, it is also referred to in different languages as São João Baptista de Ternate or Fortaleza de Ternate (Portuguese), Ciudad del Rosario (Spanish) or Gammalamma (Ternatean and Dutch). Today it is locally known as Kastella/Kastela.

History

In April 1521, a fleet was dispatched by

King Manuel I Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as ...

of Portugal from Lisbon under the command of Jorge de Brito. The fleet was given orders to intercept the Spanish fleet of

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...

while sailing towards the Spice Islands from the Americas. Upon making landfall, they were ordered to construct a fortress on Ternate and to establish the Portuguese pre-eminence in the region. The initial fort was named by the Portuguese after Saint

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

, on whose feast day the first stone was laid in 1522. It was completed in 15 February 1523. The location selected was on the south-west coast of Ternate, near the Sultan's Court, but 7 km from the island's main reef-free harbor at Talangame. Kastella commanded three narrow passages through the encircling reefs, which allowed small crafts to arrive for loading cloves, but prevented larger vessels from closing sufficiently to bombard. Several subsequent visitors described the fort as incomplete, and it was not until the governorship of António Galvão, commencing in 1536, that the defenses were improved significantly. After killing Ternate's Sultan

Hairun Sultan Hairun Jamilu (c. 1522 – 28 February 1570) was the 6th Muslim ruler of Ternate in Maluku, reigning from 1535 to 1570. During his long reign, he had a shifting relation to the Portuguese who had a stronghold in Ternate and tried to domin ...

in 1570, the Portuguese were besieged in their fort by forces of the new Sultan Baab for five years. In 1575, they handed over the fort and retreated to

Ambon Ambon may refer to: Places * Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia ** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province ** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796 * Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...

. Sultan Baab occupied the fort, renamed it as Gammalamma and converted it into his royal palace. Anticipating a Portuguese return, Sultan Baab extensively modified the defenses into a substantial fortress, and constructed an additional fort 5 km to the east, known today as Fort Kota Janji. In 1605, the newly arrived Dutch

VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus ...

captured Portuguese forts on Ambon and

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

and established a trading base on Ternate. The Spanish (in a

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...

with Portugal since 1580) dispatched a strong expedition from the Philippines and recaptured Kastella, taking hostage Sultan

Saidi Berkat Sultan Saidi Berkat (c. 1563 – 1628) was the eighth Sultan of Ternate in the Maluku Islands. He succeeded to the extensive east Indonesian realm built up by his father Sultan Babullah, reigning from 1583 to 1606. The Spanish, who colonized the ...

and exiling him to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

in March 1606. They further modified the Gammalamma defenses into a powerful fortress and renamed it as Ciudad del Rosario. Dutch Admiral Paulus van Caerden, captured by the Spanish in 1610 and held in Kastella, regarded it as "invulnerable." It was the Spanish capital of the Moluccas between 1606 and 1663, a large city that housed several churches, a Franciscan monastery and a hospital. When the Spanish departed from the Spice Islands in 1663, they partially destroyed the defenses which were then occupied by the Dutch. Today the site consists of ruins spread over a large area, scattered with local houses and bisected by the main island road. There is a monument for the 1575 Ternatean victory over the Portuguese, and sections of the old walls and bastions from the Spanish period can also be seen.

References

External links

The Portuguese in Indonesia: the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda islands

Forts of the Spice Islands of Indonesia
{{Forts and fortresses of the Portuguese empire Buildings and structures completed in 1522 Ternate Kastela Buildings and structures in North Maluku 1522 establishments in the Portuguese Empire Portuguese colonial architecture in Indonesia

History

See also

References

External links