A famosa
A Famosa ( Malay Kota A Famosa , English The Famous , Portuguese Fortaleza de Malaca 'Fortress of Malacca' ) is a former Portuguese fortress in Malacca , Malaysia . The Porta de Santiago , a small gatehouse , is the only part of the fortress that still exists today. It is one of the oldest preserved architectural remains of the European colonial era in Southeast Asia and the Far East.
history
In 1511 a Portuguese fleet under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque arrived. His forces attacked the armies of the Malacca Sultanate and defeated the Sultan's armies.
Albuquerque acted quickly to consolidate its achievements and had the fortress built around a natural hill near the sea. Albuquerque thought that Malacca would become an important port that could connect Portugal with the spice route of Rear India and with China. At that time, the Portuguese established outposts in places like Hormuz in Arabia, Macau near the Ming Empire of China , and Goa in India . They were a number of important and useful ports for ships lining the Kingdom of Portugal's trade routes to India, China, and Southeast Asia.
The fortress once consisted of long defensive walls and four large towers. One was a four-story keep , while the others had an ammunition storage room , the captain's residence (on land and sea) and an officer's quarters . Most of the village was grouped in townhouses within the fortress walls. As Malacca's population grew, it grew out of the original fortress, and expansions were added around 1586.
The fortress of Malacca changed hands in 1641 when the Dutch Republic drove the Kingdom of Portugal from Malacca. The Dutch renovated the gate in 1670, which explains the inscription "ANNO 1670" on the archway. Above the arch there is a bas-relief with the seal of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
The fortress changed hands again in the late 18th century when the Dutch Republic handed it over to the Kingdom of Great Britain to keep it from falling into the hands of Napoleon's expansion. The English refused to maintain the fortress and ordered its demolition in 1806. The fortress was almost completely demolished before Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore , who went from Penang to Malacca in 1807 , arrived. It was Captain William Farquhar, charged with the destruction of the fort, who was directed to preserve two of the fort's gates, including the Santiago Gate, as well as the town hall, now a museum, church and prison.
Archaeological find
At the end of November 2006, during the construction of a 110-meter-high rotating tower in the city of Malacca, part of the fortress was exposed, which is believed to be the Middleburg bastion. Construction of the tower was discontinued and its location was subsequently relocated to the Bandar Hilir district on Jalan Merdeka, where it was officially opened to the public on April 18, 2008. The Malacca Museums Corporation suspects that the building was built by the Dutch during the Dutch occupation of Malacca from 1641 to 1824.
At the beginning of June 2004, a watchtower called the Santiago Bastion was discovered during the construction of Dataran Pahlawan.
- photos
The city and fortress of Malacca (1780)
Reconstruction of the watchtower at the top of the excavated remains
A Famosa, the ruin ditch
Entrance of A Famosa Fortress, Malacca, Malaysia
The gatehouse as seen from St Paul's Hill.
literature
- Dennis De Witt: Melaka from the Top . Nutmeg Publishing, Selangor 2010, ISBN 978-983-43519-2-2 .
Web links
- Tourism Malaysia - St Paul's Hill (A Famosa)
- A Famosa on the All Malaysia.info website
- Description of the fortress during the British colonial period by Hikayat Abdullah . ( Memento of December 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
swell
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↑ Peter Borschberg: Ethnicity, language and culture in Melaka during the transition from Portuguese to Dutch rule. In: Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 83, No. 2, 2010, pp. 93-117;
Peter Borschberg: The Strait of Singapore and Melaka: Violence, Security and Diplomacy in the 17th Century. NUS Press, Singapore 2010. - ↑ Cynthia Lee: New Straits Times. Excavation for Malacca tower project unearths ruins of Dutch fort. In: New Straits Times. December 1, 2006 (English) ( Page no longer available , searching web archives: nst.com.my ) accessed in October 2016th
- ↑ Old watchtower may be under site. In: The Star. December 4, 2006 thestar.com.my ( Memento of December 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive )