Top Travel Destinations Fort Kastela– Ternate History Tour -Wonderful Indonesia

Fort Kastela is a Portuguese heritage fort which also known as Fort Gamlamo. Fort Kastela is located on Jalan Raya Benteng Kastela Santo Paulo, Kastela Village, Pulau Ternate District, Ternate, North Maluku province. This fort is located on the north side of Kastela Beach.

According to historical records, after the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511, Admiral Alfonso d'Alburquerque sent Antonio de Abreu and Francisco Serrao by fleets consisting of three ships to Maluku in December 1511. In January 1512, they arrived in Banda. After some time in Ambon, the ship carrying Serrao wrecked, and then he was picked up by Sultan’s delegation and was taken to Ternate in early 1512.

The arrival of Francisco Serrao in Ternate was the first arrival of a European official - in this case the Portuguese - from an exploration of the Portuguese authorities that is ambitious and had started since the mid 15th century. The expansion of the Portuguese to Maluku is in purpose to find the spice islands. They seemed to gamble with fate and risk in order to obtain a commercial monopoly of spices which became a luxury commodity in the European market and promised a fantastic profit at that time. Thus, they maintained it with all their power and efforts, whether political, economical, and even military force.

Francisco Serrao is a first functionary Portuguese who successfully negotiated the monopoly rights of his country over the spice trade and the exclusive rights to establish a Portuguese fort in Gamlamo with SultanTernate, Sultan Bayanullah (Boleif).

Finally, in 1520, King of Portugal, Don Manuel, sent Jorge de Brito to build a Portuguese fort in Gamlamo, Ternate, and picked Jorge de Brito’s brother, Antonio de Brito, as commander of the fortress. The built Portuguese fort was named Nostra Senhora de Rosario (Beautiful Women with Roses Necklace), but better known as Fort Gamlamo by local people, and the name has changed to be Fort Kastela because of its location in Kastela Village.

Kastela fort was built gradually by the Portuguese for approximately 20 years. After completing the early stage construction of this fort, Jorge de Brito back to Goa (West India) in 1521 but before getting there, he had been killed in a battle in Aceh. Then the construction is continued by Garcia Henriquez in 1525. In 1530, Gonsalo Pereira took his turn to continue the construction, until in 1540 the fort was completed by Jorge de Castro.

Until 1569, Fort Gamlamo is the only fort that stands outside Malacca. After that, other new forts were built in Ambon, Jailolo, Moro (Tolo and Samafo), Banda and Makassar. However, those new forts seems more like a twin house than a real fort. At those forts, there is no captain who was appointed by the King of Portuguese, like on Fort Gamlamo in Ternate.

On February 27, 1570, the murder of Sultan Khairun Jamil occurred cruelly in this fort by Antonio Pimental, on the orders of Diego Lopez de Mesquita, the 18th Portuguese governor, with trickery and deception.

Babullah, heir to the throne of the Sultanate of Ternate, sued Diego Lopez de Mesquita to be put on trial and convicted for the crime of murder. As the sue was rejected, Babullah and the people of Ternate besieged Fort Gamlamo for 4 years (1574-1578) and issued an ultimatum that the Portuguese left Ternate immediately. In such condition, a massive evacuation from Ternate of the Portuguese began, first they went to Tidore as a transit point, and then to Goa. When Portuguese reinforcements from Goa and Malacca arrived, it was already too late. The leadership of the Portuguese fleet could only watch the debris of Portuguese authority in Ternate. Governor and his apparatuses, missionaries and other Portuguese people had left Ternate, lamenting their lost and their past which is full of violence, arrogance and bloodshed. They left, bringing bad memories they never imagine before that they have to face the end of their reign miserably.

In 1606, Spanish Governor Don Pedro da Cunha invaded and took control of this fort. However, since VOC ran their commercial activity intensely, Spain was not able to compete with it, and only able to survive because of the generosity of the Dutch Governor in Ternate. Therefore, in 1662 the Spanish authorities in Manila decided to close their garrisons in Maluku and pulled back their troops from Maluku to face massive invasion of Chinese pirates who wanted to take over Manila. In 1663, the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Maluku started, and before dispatched to Manila, the Spanish troops had burned Fort Gamlamo in order not to be seized by the Netherlands.

Fort Kastela has a land area of 2,724 m² with a rectangular shape, and is composed of basalts and limestones. Parts of Fort Kastela that can still be identified are only the bastion and the tower, while the rest is only rubble. However, the first fort of Portuguese heritage still shows its grandeur upon the rubble.

In the past, there is a bell in this fort, made by Perio Diaz Bocarro in 1603, imported directly from Portugal. When the Portuguese left Ternate, the historical bell was moved by VOC and hung at the entrance of Fort Oranje until 1950. And since 1951, it was transferred to the Catholic Church in Ternate (Stone Church / Gereja Batu) and stored. But now the bell was no longer in that place.