»A' Famosa
Friday, October 5, 2012
A Famosa (Malay: Kota A Famosa) is a Portuguese fortress located in Malacca, Malaysia. In 1511, a Portuguese fleet arrived under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque. His forces attacked and successfully defeated the armies of the Malacca Sultanate. Moving quickly to consolidate his gains, Albuquerque had the fortress built around a natural hill near the sea. Albuquerque believed that Malacca would become an important port linking Portugal to the Spice Route in China. At this time other Portuguese were establishing outposts in such places as Macau, China and Goa, India in order to create a string of friendly ports for ships heading to China and returning home to Portugal. By 1583, Malacca had become a fortified city protected by seventy canons aimed in all directions. According to Malacca history, The fortress changed hands again in the early 19th century when the Dutch handed it over to the British to prevent it from falling into the hands of Napoleon's expansionist France. The English were wary of maintaining the fortification and ordered its destruction in 1806. The fort was almost totally demolished but for the timely intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, who happened to visit Malacca in 1810. Because of his passion for history, this small gate was spared from destruction.
Nowadays, you may know this famous symbol of Malacca "A'Famosa". It is among the oldest surviving European architectural remains in Asia. The Porta de Santiago, a small gate house, is the only remaining part of the fortress still standing. Taking a trishaw ride through Melaka seems to be the thing to do there at the moment. There are lots of them offering this service and the price is fixed these days at MYR40 for an hour so you should not get ripped off if you decide to take a ride.The trishaws in Malacca are really colorful with lot's of decorations and most of them has a sound system too and play music while you go with them. For more information ,please visit Malacca gov archive
References : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Famosa
words spilled @ 10:51 PM /
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