Fort Kastella

Fort Kastela (Indonesian: Benteng Kastela) is a ruined Portuguese fortress located at the southwest coast of Ternate. It is famous for being the first colonial fortification constructed in the Spice Islands (Maluku) of Indonesia. 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, named after the Spanish region of Castile.

Text adapted from “Fort Kastela” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Kastella ranks #3,000 of 5,479 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #16 of the 35 mapped in Indonesia. See how Indonesia compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗