Castle Batavia's Watergate

When the excavation of Batavia’s wreck site began, the archaeologists were initially baffled by the discovery of a set of sandstone blocks in what would have been the ship’s hold. Cleaned and examined on shore, the blocks were found to have roman numerals engraved on them which indicated that there may be an assembly sequence for them. Further research indicated that the blocks were almost certainly the water gate for Castle Batavia, under construction in 1629, in the capital of the Dutch East Indies. A replacement water gate was later prefabricated and sent out to the East Indies. The stone for the water gate, which weighed in at around 30 tons, was recently found to have been quarried at Bentheim, north-western Germany.

Castle Batavia served as company headquarters for nearly 200 years but following the bankruptcy of the VOC in 1799, and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Dutch Government took over the company’s assets and set about modernising the infrastructure of the colonies. Thus, Castle Batavia was dismantled, the moat filled in and the stone used in new buildings. However, one of the original gateways was left standing and a public park established around it.  Could this have been the replacement water gate? Also, the portico structure you see before you is a replica. It is an exact copy of the real one, which is displayed at the Museum of Geraldton.