Indonesia · 16th century
Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort that was built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The first fort on the site was constructed by the a local sultan around 1634, to counter Dutch encroachments. The site was ceded to the Dutch under the Treaty of Bongaya, and they completely rebuilt it between 1673 and 1679. It had five bastions and 1 ravelin, it was surrounded by a seven meter high rampart and a two meter deep moat.
The fort was the Dutch regional military and governmental headquarters until the 1930s. It was extensively restored in the 1970s and is now a cultural and educational centre, a venue for music and dance events, and a tourist destination.
Text adapted from “Fort Rotterdam” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fort Rotterdam ranks #1,394 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #5 of the 43 mapped in Indonesia. Founded 1545, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 891 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,199 times in the last 60 days, more than 79% of the atlas. See how Indonesia compares in the castle statistics.
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