【Introduction】

Built in 1624 (the 4th year of Tianqi’s reign of the Ming dynasty), Fort Zeelandia, originally called the Orange City was rebuilt with bricks and renamed in 1634 (the 7th year of Chongzhen’s reign). It is one of the oldest forts built by the Dutch in Taiwan proper. Three sections of the fort's walls and the ruins of a semicircular bastion remain today. The ruins of the fort with its walls are located in an L-shaped area between Gubao Street, Guosheng Road, Lane 85 of Anping Road, and Anbei Road. The ruins include two of the fort's original three gates — the west gate and the northwest gate. In addition, remaining ruins also include the Gelderland Bastion at the fort's southwest corner and those from artillery battles between Koxinga’s forces and the Dutch. In 2003 and 2005, archeological excavations were conducted in the Fort Zeelandia area, where ceramic objects from the 17th century were unearthed for the first time in Taiwan. The dig signified a new excavation site for the study of the trade routes by which European ceramics traversed through Asia. More importantly, while the ceramic objects excavated from Fort Zeelandia were mostly Chinese in origin, a combination of characteristics of Japanese and Dutch ceramics were also found. This provided solid evidence attesting to the use of Taiwan as a base for East Asian trade at the time and also reflected Taiwan's role in the East Asian trade network. The finds are legacies of the Dutch and the descendants of the Koxinga clan in Taiwan.

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