Fort Amsterdam

Fort Amsterdam at Hila on the north coast of Ambon is a compact three-storey blockhouse with a surrounding wall, built by the Dutch East India Company in 1637 and enlarged in the 1640s on the site of an earlier Portuguese trading lodge, and it exists because of cloves: Ambon and the surrounding islands were the source, the Company enforced a monopoly on them with considerable violence including the extirpation of trees outside approved areas, and forts like this one held the coast. It was restored in the 1990s and is a small museum. Rumphius, the German-born naturalist who wrote the Ambonese Herbal and the Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet while blind and after losing his family in the 1674 earthquake, worked in this area, and the fort is associated with him. An old mosque and church stand nearby at Hila.

History

A trading lodge was set up here in 1512 by Francisco Serrão, a Portuguese explorer and cousin of Ferdinand Magellan. The Dutch East India Company turned it into a defensive post in 1637 and enlarged it in 1642; the fort was neglected in the early 20th century and restored from July 1991, following a picture in François Valentijn's account of Ambon (Wikipedia, Fort Amsterdam, Ambon).

What's there

• A three-storey blockhouse - the compact Dutch tower fort of 1637.
• A Portuguese lodge beneath - the earlier trading post the fort was built over.
• The clove monopoly - the trade the fort existed to enforce.
• The Rumphius connection - the naturalist who worked in this district.

When to go

September to March; Maluku's seasons run against western Indonesia. Half a day.

What to expect

It is small and the museum is modest. The road round Ambon takes over an hour. Interpretation of the monopoly's violence is limited on site.

Nearby

Hila's old mosque and church are close; Ambon city is south.

Key facts