Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The original fort,
Jum Pandan, gave its name to the city Ujung Pandang, another name for the city of Makassar.
Fort Rotterdam lies in the heart of Makassar. It is rectangular in
shape, surrounded with 7 meter wall and was equipped with six bulwarks,
five of them are still visible:
Bastion Bonie (after the Bone state) to the west,
Bastion Boeton (Buton Island) to the northwest,
Bastion Batjang (Bacan Islands) to the southwest,
Bastion Mandassar to the northeast, and
Bastion Amboina (Ambon) to the southeast. The sixth bulwark,
Bastion Ravelin,
is not visible any longer. Some of the bastions still contain some
cannons. It is possible to walk over most of the ramparts. A two meter
deep moat system used to surround the perimeter of the fort, however
only the southwest portion of the moat can still be seen today.
Inside the fort are thirteen buildings, 11 of them are 17th-century
original buildings of the fort; most are still good in condition. At the
very center of the fort is a church building. Several buildings along
the north and south curtain wall still exist: the buildings along the
northern curtain wall were some of the oldest buildings (1686), such as
the residence of the governor, residence of the senior merchant, of the
captain, the predikant,
and the secretary, with several storage for weapons. The government's
residence at the north-westernmost is nicknamed as "the Speelman's
House", however Speelman himself never actually lived in this house. The
house was used by the governor of Celebes until the mid 19th-century
when he moved to a more comfortable villa in Jalan Ahmad Yani. The
Speelman's House now housed one half of La Galigo museum. La Galigo
museum kept some prehistoric megaliths from Watampone, as well as ancient weapons, coins, shells, utensils, sketches and stamps.
The buildings on the south curtain, originally a storage, housed a
museum displaying local skills in silk weaving, agriculture and
boatbuilding; and scale models of indigenous boats. The barracks on the eastern wall now housed a small library, featuring
old Dutch books that mostly belonged to Reverend Mates, a 19th-century
missionary. There is also ships' logs of VOC captains and ancient lontar manuscripts.
The department of archaeology is housed in the former building of the
head of the administration of VOC; the ground floor of the building,
located in the southeast corner of the fort, was formerly a prison.
The other two buildings inside Fort Rotterdam were built by the Japanese during the brief Japanese occupation period.
The southwestern Bastion (Bastion Bacan) contains a prison where Prince Diponegoro was imprisoned for the rest of his life.
The fort is now used to held various events. There is a conservatory
for music and dance, archive of the city, and a historic and
archaeological institute.
^thats my feet on the top of little tunnel.. i'm sorry that i can't show you the building.. because my camera's memory cards are broken
