Surakarta administration plans to reconstruct the main gate of Vastenburg Fort with the aim of returning it to its original form.

The Surakarta Urban Planning Agency head, Agus Djoko Witiarso, said the agency would send a team to Leiden, the Netherlands, to research the details of the fort, which was built in 1745.

“We’ve been instructed by the mayor to study the shape of the main gate. He wants it to be as precise as possible,” he said.

The head of the protection, development and utilization division of the Central Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency, Gutomo Sidharta, said sending a team to Leiden was necessary as reconstruction depended on having accurate details.

“When reconstructing a building, it has to be exactly the same as the original including the materials,” he said.

Historian Hery Priyatmoko said that Vastenburg was a city landmark that merited preservation. “The fort is a relic of the colonial era. It gives people a sense of continuity, a sense of place and a sense of pride,” he said.

Of the 442 forts built by the Dutch across Indonesia, Vastenburg is the only one now owned by a private institution.

The fort was used by the Japanese in 1942 and after independence was used by the Indonesian Army as a security and defense office from 1945 to 1986.

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