|
Batavia Castle (Dutch ''Kasteel Batavia'') was a fort located at the mouth of Ciliwung River in Jakarta. Batavia Castle was the administrative center of Dutch East India Company in Asia. Batavia Castle was also the residence of the Governor-General, the highest VOC official in the East Indies who chaired the Council of the Indies, the executive committee that took the decisions in the East Indies. ==History== Pieter Both, the first elected Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, appointed Captain Jacques l'Hermite to acquire a 2,500 square ''vadem'' (10,000 square yards) of land in Jayakarta in order to establish a VOC ''loge'' (trading post). The request was granted by Prince Jayawikarta, the ruler of Jayakarta, under a large sum of money (1200 real). This land is located on the eastern bank of Ciliwung near the Chinese quarter. In 1612, the Dutch built a ''loge'', a ''huis'', and a ''factorij'' on this land; altogether known as Nassau Huis. This agreement was maintained during the governance of Governor-General Gerard Reynst and later Laurens Reael. When Jan Pieterszoon Coen became the Governor-General of Dutch East Indies, he built another loge to the east of Nassau Huis in 1617, named Mauritius. In 1618, Coen built a slipway, a hospital, and masonry cannon ex-placements that supplemented the cannons to these loge on the island of Onrust. Later, Coen fortified the two houses into a square fort surrounded with solid stone wall of 9 feet tall and 6 to 7 feet thick, as well as equipping it with cannons. This new fort building was known as Fort Jacatra. When Coen sailed to Ambon, Pieter de Carpentier took over the position of Governor-General temporarily and was responsible in managing Fort Jacatra. This new situation created a tension between VOC and Prince Jayawikarta. When the Sultanate of Banten decided to remove Prince Jayawikarta from his position because he was accused of having a friendship agreement with British without prior approval; the VOC celebrated the decision and planned a new Castle on 12 March 1619 named Batavia Castle. Coen was quiet angry to know that his request to name the Castle and the city ''Nieuw Hoorn'' (after his birthplace) was not granted. Batavia Castle was nine times larger than Fort Jacatra and engulfed the eastern part of Fort Jacatra. On 30 May 1619, Coen destroyed Jayakarta and expelled its population, the area becoming part of Batavia. On 4 March 1621, Batavia was officially the name of the city as well as the center of VOC trade empire which extend from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan. Construction of Batavia Castle started in 1620; the spot is just to the east of Fort Jacatra. Construction took a long period due to the lack of proper building materials. Buildings materials were asked again and again by the Governor General and Council on the so called "lists of demands" (the ''Eijs'') which were sent to the Netherlands. Little by little Fort Jacatra was engulfed by the Batavia Castle until its complete demolition between 1627 and 1632. At the end of the term of office of Antonio van Diemen, the fort had its form and arrangements that it kept until the end. Inside the walls however, things were changing constantly. Also changing were the coastline of Batavia. Since Batavia Castle was situated on a low-lying coastal plain with swamps on either side, its canals hardly flowed and sediments from the mud-filled connecting river sank to the bottom. Rapid silting up also occurred on the beach. At the end of the 18th-century Batavia Castle, initially built on the seashore, lay more than two kilometers inland. The silted-up coast played an important role in the unhealthiness of Batavia: at high tide this area was washed by the sea and covered with the refuse of the town and poisonous jellyfish. At low tide, sea water stayed behind in many puddles and basins. Batavians believed that illness was spread by "evil vapors" rising from the soil, containing miasmata - small airborne particles carrying diseases. Other features which contribute to the decline of Batavia in general were the polluted canals, the church-yards, the quality of the drinking water, and the digging of waterways. In 1751, the southern (land-side) curtain wall, together with its Landpoort, were demolished; opening the castle to the Kasteelplein. In 1756, the sea-side Waterpoort was rebuild. Around this period, Batavia had become so diseased that people moved to the cleaner south region of the city. Complete dismantle of the Castle started in 1809 when governor Daendels decided to moved the administrative center to southern area Weltevreden. Batavia Castle was slowly demolished and its stones were reused to build the new Palace of Daendels (now the Indonesian Ministry of Finance). Factories and warehouses were built in the area where the castle once stood, and has stayed this way until now. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Batavia Castle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|