| Fort Kastela Fortaleza de Ternate (Portuguese) | |
|---|---|
     Top, Middle, Bottom: Remaining ruins of the fort; 17th century image of Kastela; Fort ruins in front ofGamalama andSultan Hairun monument. | |
 Interactive map of Fort Kastela Fortaleza de Ternate (Portuguese) | |
| Location | Ternate,Maluku Islands, Indonesia |
| Coordinates | 00°45′39″N127°18′43″E / 0.76083°N 127.31194°E /0.76083; 127.31194 |
| Built | 1522 (finished on 15 February 1523) |
| Architectural style | Portuguese |
Fort Kastela (Indonesian:Benteng Kastela) is a ruinedPortuguese fortress located at the southwest coast ofTernate. It is famous for being the first colonial fortification constructed in theSpice Islands (Maluku) ofIndonesia. Built by the Portuguese in 1522, it is also referred to in different languages asSão João Baptista de Ternate orFortaleza de Ternate (Portuguese),Ciudad del Rosario (Spanish) orGammalamma (Ternatean and Dutch). Today it is locally known as Kastella/, from spanish región ofCastile.
In April 1521, a fleet was dispatched byKing Manuel I of Portugal from Lisbon under the command of Jorge de Brito. The fleet was given orders to intercept the Spanish fleet ofFerdinand Magellan 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.[1]
The initial fort was named by the Portuguese after SaintJohn the Baptist, on whose feast day the first stone was laid in 1522. It was completed in 15 February 1523.[2] 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 ofAntónio Galvão, commencing in 1536, that the defenses were improved significantly.[3][user-generated source?]After killing Ternate's SultanHairun in 1570, the Portuguese were besieged in their fort by forces of the new SultanBaab for five years. In 1575, they handed over the fort and retreated toAmbon.
Sultan Baab occupied the fort, renamed it asGammalamma and converted it into his royal palace.[4] Anticipating a Portuguese return, Sultan Baab extensively modified the defenses into a substantial fortress,[5] and constructed an additional fort 5 km to the east, known today asFort Kota Janji.
In 1605, the newly arrived DutchVOC captured Portuguese forts on Ambon andTidore and established a trading base on Ternate.
The Spanish (in apersonal union with Portugal since 1580) dispatched a strong expedition from the Philippines and recaptured Kastella, taking hostage SultanSaidi Berkat and exiling him toManila in March 1606.[6] They further modified the Gammalamma defenses into a powerful fortress and renamed it asCiudad del Rosario.[7] Dutch AdmiralPaulus van Caerden, captured by the Spanish in 1610 and held in Kastella, regarded it as "invulnerable."[8]
It was the Spanish capital of the Moluccas between 1606 and 1663, a large city that housed several churches, aFranciscan 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.
Broken by the gales and waves, she [theTrinidad] was dismembered by the Portuguese, who managed to salvage her cannon and timbers. These would be useful as a new fort they were building ... It was completed on February 15, 1523, and named after St. John the Baptist ... The fortress encompassed a large space surrounded by six-foot waslls with a two-level tower rising to thirty feet.
