Portico

Western Australian Museum

This portico, once destined for the gates of a Dutch port city in Indonesia, was recreated from 137 sandstone blocks recovered from the wreck of Batavia (1629) by maritime archaeologists with the Western Australian Museum. On display in Geraldton, the closest point on the mainland to the shipwreck, it is extant physical evidence of the design of Kasteel Batavia.

Weighing 37 tonnes, the blocks were used to ballast the outward-bound Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or Dutch East India Company ship, and were destined for VOC buildings being constructed in Batavia. Mason’s marks inscribed on the surface provided instructions on how to assemble the stones into an enormous portico.

  • A school of fish swimming around the in situ Batavia portico
    Portico blocks at the Batavia wreck site, 1973. Credit: WA Museum, BTA_0090
  • A diver inspecting the portico in situ
    Portico blocks at the Batavia wreck site, 1973. Credit: WA Museum, BTH_21a
  • A group of people moving blocks from the Batavia portico along a jetty
    Recovery of the portico blocks on the Museum work boat, 1973. Credit: WA Museum, BTB_305

    Rebuilding the portico

    Before constructing the portico, the WA Museum archaeologists made a 1:10 model. Following the order of the mason’s marks, the column stones were stacked in alternating layers. The pediment, the top of the arch, was unmarked and was constructed through trial and error. Six bronze pintles, found at the wreck, would have been hinges for massive wooden doors.

    German stones

    The stones originate from Blentheim in Northwest Germany and have been cut in a Renaissance style typical of the Weser River region in Central Germany between 1530-1630. Given Blentheim’s proximity to the Netherlands, the sandstone was a popular building material used in Dutch official secular buildings including town halls and castles.  

    Dutch drawings and journal entries from the mid 17th century show that the portico was intended for the gates of the castle in the city of Batavia.

    • A map of Batavia
      Elevated view of the city of Batavia in 1630. This engraving shows scaffolding where the portico carried on the ship Batavia was meant to go. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
    • A depiction of a seascape with various boats, a hilly landscape in the distance dotted with buildings
      This watercolour made around 1655, shows the gate with a portico façade on the Waterpoort of an identical design to that recovered from the Batavia wreck. Johannes Vingboons. NL-HaNA_4.VELH_619.32. National Archives, Netherlands
    • A building made of stone blocks with pointed spires
      3D model of the Batavia Portico and Waterpoort (based on Vingboon’s watercolour). Credit: Kevin Edwards

      VOC architecture in Indonesia today

      Kasteel Batavia was destroyed in 1809, along with other buildings in Oud Batavia (Old Town), by the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, Herman Willem Daendels after several outbreaks of disease. Today the street Jalan Tongkol, Pademangan, North Jakarta passes through the centre of the area where Batavia Castle used to stand. The site is part of the Jakarta Old Town historic area and was recently excavated in 2021 by archaeologists from the University of Indonesia. Several walls were revealed with a small amount of bricks and ceramic fragments recovered.

      • An image of a large brick building with various jungle plants growing around and on it
        Parts of the remaining wall of Old Batavia to the southeast of what used to be Batavia Castle. To the left, heavily covered in tree roots, is the early 18th-century magazine. The empty space between the magazine and the wall was what used to be the graanpakhuizen (grain-warehouse). This view is looking toward the northwest. Credit: Rochelimit (CC BY-SA 4.0)