User:Fifteen22/sandbox

Kastella is a ruined fortress located on the south-west coast of Ternate, famous as the first colonial fortification constructed in the [Spice Islands] of Maluku/ Maluku Utara, in Indonesia.

In April 1521, a fleet had been dispatched by [King Manuel I] of Portugal from Lisbon under the command of Jorge de Brito with orders to intercept the Spanish fleet of [Ferdinand Magellan], sailing towards the [Spice Islands] from the America's, and to construct a fortress on Ternate to establish Portuguese pre-eminence in the region.

The initial fort, named by the Portuguese after Saint John the Baptist, on whose feast day the first stone was laid in 1522 was completed in 1523. The location selected was on the south-west coast of Ternate, near the Sultan's Court, but 7km from the island's main reef-free harbour at Talangame. It commanded three narrow passages through the encircling reefs, by which small craft could arrive to load cloves, but which prevented larger vessels from closing sufficiently to bombard.

Several subsequent visitors described the fort as ineffective and poorly constructed, and it was not until the governorship of [António Galvão] commencing in 1536, that the defences were improved significantly.

After killing Ternate's [Sultan Hairun] in 1570, the Portuguese were besieged in their fort by forces of the new Sultan Baab for five years, eventually handing the fort over and retreating to [Ambon] in 1575. Sultan Baab occupied the fort, renamed it Gammalamma and converted it to his royal palace. Anticipating a Portuguese return, Sultan Baab extensively modified the defences into a substantial fortress, and constructed an additional fort, known today as Fort Kota Janji.