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

Ternate Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...

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

Spice Islands In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for ...

(Maluku) of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. 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/, from spanish región of Castile.

History

In April 1521, a fleet was dispatched by

King Manuel I Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate (), 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 monarch. Manue ...

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 ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan, allowing his fl ...

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.

Fort São João Baptista de Ternate

The initial fort was named by the Portuguese after Saint

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, 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. São João Baptista 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 António Galvão (c. 1490–1557), also known as Antonio Galvano, was a Portuguese soldier, chronicler and administrator in the Maluku islands, and a Renaissance historian who was the first person to present a comprehensive report of the leading ...

, commencing in 1536, that the defenses were improved significantly. After killing Ternate's Sultan

Hairun Sultan Hairun Jamilu (Jawi script, Jawi: ; c. 1522 – 28 February 1570) was the 6th Muslim ruler of Sultanate of Ternate, Ternate in Maluku Islands, Maluku, reigning from 1535 to 1570. During his long reign, he had a shifting relation to the Port ...

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.

Ternatean fort

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 (, 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 of Tidore (with three sm ...

and established a trading base on Ternate.

Spanish fort

The Spanish (in a

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

with Portugal since 1580) dispatched a strong expedition from the Philippines and recaptured Kastella, taking hostage Sultan Saidi Berkat and exiling him to

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

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 Paulus van Caerden ( 1569 – Manila, October 1615 or 1616) was a Dutch admiral in service of the Dutch East India Company. He was governor of the Maluku Islands for one month. In 1595 Van Caerden served as midshipman on the first expedition ...

, 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 The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

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.

Commanders of the fort

Portuguese

* Captain António de Brito 1522-1526 * Captain Garcia Henriques 1526-1527 * Captain

Jorge de Menezes Jorge de Menezes (also spelt Meneses) (c. 1498 – 1537) was a Portuguese explorer. Due to a monsoon, he was forced to reside in Versya, posited by Pieter Anton Tiele as Waisai, between 1526 and 1527. Menezes called the region ''Ilhas dos Papuas' ...

1527-1530 * Captain Gonçalo Pereira 1530-1531 * Captain Luís de Andrade 1531 * Captain Vicente da Fonseca 1531-1533 * Captain Tristão de Ataíde 1533-1536 * Captain

1536-1539 * Captain Jorge de Castro 1539-1544 * Captain Jordão de Freitas 1544-1546 * Captain Bernardim de Sousa 1546-1549 * Captain Baltazar Veloso 1549 * Captain Cristóvão de Sá 1549-1550 * Captain Bernardim de Sousa 1550-1552 * Captain Cristóvão de Sá 1552-1555 * Captain

Duarte de Eça Duarte may refer to: * Duarte (name), person's surname (or composed surname) and given name * Duarte, California, United States * Duarte Province, Dominican Republic * Pico Duarte, mountain in the Dominican Republic * Instituto Cuesta Duarte The In ...

1555-1558 * Captain António Pereira Brandão 1558-1560 * Captain Manuel de Vasconcelos 1560-1561 * Captain Sebastião Machado 1561 * Captain Henrique de Sá 1562-1564 * Captain Álvaro de Mendonça 1564-1566 * Captain Diogo Lopes de Mesquita de Lima 1567-1570 * Captain Álvaro de Ataíde 1567-1570 * Captain Nuno Pereira de Lacerda 1570-1575

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