Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan) - The Strategic Location

The Strategic Location

The Dutch chose a sandy peninsula off the coast of Tainan for the fortress, since this would allow direct access to the sea and with it, supplies and reinforcements from Batavia in event of a siege. Unfortunately, the site lacked adequate supplies of fresh water, which had to be shipped from the mainland.

A series of sandbars extended from south to north; the east side of such sandbars was the Taijian Inner Sea. Fort Zeelandia was established on the largest sandbar to control the channel for entering the inner sea. The Taijian Inner Sea was also a good harbor.

Bricks were brought from Java and the mortar consisted of a mixture of sugar, sand, ground seashells and glutinous rice. The fort was designed to be surrounded by three concentric layers of walls and its four corners were built into protruding bastions for better defense.

Dutch bond was used for laying bricks to build Fort Zeelandia. It is created by alternately laying headers and stretchers in a single course to avoid gaps. The next course is laid so that a header lies in the middle of the stretcher in the course below. The Dutch bricks should have a 10-days kilning, the texture is solid and compact, and its color is red.

There were three layers of wall, and a protruding bastion on each of four corners on Fort Zeelandia, in order to expand the defense scope; this is the typical European fort of the 17th century. Inside the fort was the military and administration center, church, garrisons, and jailhouse; outside was the downtown. Between the fort and downtown, there were market, slaughterhouse, gallows, execution ground and city weighing station.