Fort Zeelandia: A Castle with Four Names

30-second overview: In August 1624, the Dutch East India Company rebuilt a fort at Dayuan in Tainan, naming it Fort Oranje; in 1626 it was renamed Fort Zeelandia. The main fortress was completed in 1634, becoming the central hub of Dutch rule in Taiwan. In February 1662, after a nine-month siege by Koxinga, Dutch Governor Coyett surrendered the keys, and the site became the Ming-Zheng's Anping Town and royal capital. During the Qing era, walls were dismantled to build Eternal Golden Castle; in the Japanese era, the inner fortress was leveled; in 2022, the Ministry of Culture's Cultural Heritage Bureau merged two national historic sites within Anping Old Fort and renamed them the "Fort Zeelandia Remains."

Four Names

A castle in Taiwan's history has borne four different names.

In 1624, the Dutch built a fort on the Dayuan coast, naming it "Fort Oranje" to commemorate the Prince of Orange who led the Dutch War of Independence.¹

On September 29, 1626, the Amsterdam Chamber of Seventeen ordered it renamed "Fort Zeelandia" after Zeeland, one of the seven Dutch provinces. In June 1627, the Batavia Governor-General relayed the order, requiring Dayuan authorities to announce the name change with cannon salutes and hat distributions to citizens per Dutch custom.¹

In 1662, Koxinga took possession of the castle, renaming it Anping Town; three generations of Zheng rulers resided here, so it was popularly called the "Royal Capital."¹

In October 2022, the Ministry of Culture's Historic Monuments Review Committee decided to merge the two national historic sites within Anping Old Fort into one, renaming it the "Fort Zeelandia Remains."¹

Four names, four regimes. The castle itself did not change; what changed was who had the right to name it.

A Fortress Built on a Sandbar

Fort Zeelandia was not built all at once.

On October 25, 1623, the Dutch East India Company dispatched Captain Libon with 16 soldiers and 39 Banda laborers to construct a simple fortification on a sandbar at the southern side of the entrance to Dayuan Bay.¹ The following January, allied forces from Mattau and Madou villages launched a nighttime fire attack, forcing the Company to demolish the fort by late April and withdraw their forces back to Penghu.¹

In late August 1624, the first Dutch Governor of Taiwan, Martinus Sonck, arrived at Dayuan and rebuilt the fort on the original site, reinforcing the northeast corner with materials salvaged from the Fengguiwei Fort in Penghu.¹

Subsequent construction phases are clearly documented: the upper main fortress was completed by late 1632; an inauguration ceremony was held on January 1, 1633; the lower main fortress was finished in 1634; the outer fortress was completed between 1637 and 1639.¹ In 1639, the Company built Fort Utrecht on nearby Spoon Mountain; in 1653, they constructed Fort Provintia at Chikan.¹ In 1660, the last Governor, Coyett, added a bastion at the northeast corner of the lower fortress, which played a role in the subsequent siege.¹

Nine Months of Siege

On April 30, 1661, Koxinga led 25,000 men to land at Luermen, using the rising tide to enter the Taijiang Inner Sea. On May 1, a naval battle ensued: two Dutch ships and two small boats faced hundreds of Zheng warships; one Dutch ship self-destructed, the rest fled in defeat.¹

Zheng forces subsequently landed and within days captured Fort Provintia, pressing toward Fort Zeelandia from three directions — the Kunshen Peninsula, the sea, and Beixianwei. In the assault of May 25, Zheng forces suffered over a thousand casualties but failed to take the fortress.¹

The siege lasted nine months. On January 25, 1662, Zheng forces bombarded Fort Utrecht and Fort Zeelandia from the north, east, and south, while dispatching 16 warships to cover assault troops seizing Fort Utrecht.¹ After the fort fell, defender morale collapsed.

On February 1, both sides swore oaths, signed, and affixed seals on Dayuan Street per custom, completing the surrender document. On February 9, two thousand Dutch boarded eight ships and departed; Coyett handed the keys to Zheng officials on the beach.¹

From Royal Capital to Ruins

After the Ming-Zheng took over the castle, they renamed it Anping Town, using it as the Prince of Yanping's residence. Three generations of Zheng rulers lived here, hence the name "Royal Capital." Legend holds that Koxinga sealed the north gate and opened a new south gate in the southern wall, invoking the Spring and Autumn period anecdote of the "Gate of Zhi and Kuo" from the State of Zheng.¹

After Qing forces entered Taiwan in 1683, the political center shifted to the prefectural capital (Tainan), Anping Town's importance declined, and its walls collapsed in many places. In 1718, Fengshan County Magistrate Li Piyu built the Taiwan Naval Command headquarters within the city; officials and civilians frequently damaged walls and dug up bricks for building materials.¹

In 1868, the Camphor War broke out between the Qing and Britain; British warships attacked, and naval gunfire hit the magazine inside the city, triggering an explosion that destroyed the walls. In 1874, Imperial Commissioner Shen Baozhen came to Taiwan to handle the Mudan Incident and transported bricks from Anping's outer city to Erkunshen to build Eternal Golden Castle.¹

In 1871, photographer John Thomson photographed Fort Zeelandia, capturing the image of a plaque on the north gate inscribed "'T CASTEEL ZEELANDIA GEBOUWD. ANNO 1634".¹

Leveled and Designated

During the Japanese colonial period, in 1897 the Japanese leveled the broken walls and ruins of the inner fortress, enclosing a stepped platform with red bricks and building the Anping Customs Superintendent's residence atop it. In 1908, the Anping Lighthouse was relocated to this platform.¹

In 1930, the Governor-General held the "Taiwan Cultural Three-Hundred-Year Commemorative Exhibition," demolishing all official residences and civilian houses around the platform, converting the customs residence into a Western-style villa for exhibitions and receiving guests. On November 26, 1933, the Governor-General designated the Fort Zeelandia site as a national historic site under the "Law for the Preservation of Historic Sites, Scenic Beauty, and Natural Monuments," prohibiting arbitrary destruction or alteration.¹

Postwar, on December 28, 1983, the "Taiwan Castle Remains (Anping Old Fort Remains)" were designated a national historic site; on October 7, 2004, the "Fort Zeelandia Walls and Interior Architectural Remains" were additionally designated. Both sites originate from the same structure and are considered among the oldest surviving buildings in Taiwan.¹

In 2022, the two national historic sites were merged and renamed the "Fort Zeelandia Remains." The same site — from Dutch fortress, to Ming-Zheng royal capital, to Qing ruins, to Japanese-era historic site, to today's national historic site — has changed names four times, each corresponding to a regime's definition of it.

Further Reading:

• Dutch-Spanish-Ming-Zheng Period — Overview of four regimes in sixty years
• Tainan City — The city where the castle stands
• Koxinga — The man who received this castle in 1662

References