FORT ROTTERDAM IN MAKASSAR REGULARLY PRESERVED

Makassar, May 29 (ANTARA) - The South Sulawesi provincial administration will make every effort to preserve the Fort Rotterdam in Makassar, one of the best Dutch buildings in Indonesia.

"For preservation, a number of houses and buildings around the fort will soon be relocated," South Sulawesi deputy Governor Agus Arifin Numang said here on Friday.

He said efforts to preserve Fort Rotterdam by relocating the buildings around it is based on Law No.5/1992 on Cultural Sanctuaries.

Arifin Numang said that in the initial stage, the South Sulawesi Trade and Industry office building, several banks, and houses close to the fort would be relocated to other areas.

According to him, the relocation cost would entirely be borne by the provincial administration.

Meanwhile, Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo has asked the local Cultural and Tourism Office to immediately issue a letter on the protection of historical sites.

"I have asked the Cultural and Tourism Office to issue a letter, banning the construction of other buildings or houses near historical sites, especially Fort Rotterdam," the governor said here on Monday.

Fort Rotterdam was built in 1667 on the site of a Goanese fort, built 100 years earlier.

In precolonial Dutch East India period, the Goanese fort was a showcase of the great Gowa kingdom of South Sulawesi whose success and prosperity was borne from the famous seafaring Bugis tribes.

It was built by the King of Gowa in 1545 and was just one of 17 defensive fortresses along the coastline of Makassar. First made of clay, it was later completed in stone in the 1600s.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the fort was a walled city with numerous buildings with military, political, economic, and even religious functions.

It was the location of the governor's residence, the military officers' quarters, government offices, the armory, a library, the warehouses, the garrison and at the center, a Protestant church. The fort has five bastions in every corner of its wall.