The hidden story of the pendem fortress of Cilacap

Wednesday 29 June 2022

Fort Pendem Cilacap or in Dutch called "Kusbatterij op de Lantong te Cilacap". As the name implies, this fort is located in Cilacap City, Central Java. At that time Cilacap City was one of the important cities during the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia.

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This is due to its strategic location with the Nusakambangan strait which is the main port gate in the area. This building was formerly used as the Dutch East Indies defense headquarters which was built in stages from 1861-1879 with an area of ​​6.5 hectares. The naming of Fort Pendem itself is in accordance with the conditions of the discovery of the building. This fort was originally discovered in 1986 AD by the local community in a buried state, therefore it is called the Pendem Fort.

Fort Pendem was originally built by indigenous workers with the main materials, namely, red bricks from volcanoes and limestone. After the construction of this fort was completed, for reasons of privacy the indigenous military who were employed were not allowed to go home and become assistants to the Dutch Army.

This is to maintain the security and privacy of the Pendem Fort. Although this Pendem Fort was deliberately built buried with a depth of approximately 3 meters and covered by shrubs. However, the facilities contained in it are quite complete.

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Namely, there are rooms consisting of 60 rest rooms, weapons building, tunnels, reconnaissance rooms, prison rooms, meeting rooms, ammunition rooms, medical clinic rooms, officers' rooms, kitchens, shooting rooms, and 13 important defense places surrounded by iron fences. The capacity of the fort is also capable of accommodating as many as one battalion of soldiers.

We can learn many things from historical relics such as this Pendem Fort. One of them is how the Dutch tried to do colonialism against the Indonesian people by using a fairly strong strategy. In addition, the collaboration between the Dutch and the natives was felt to be able to strengthen the existence of the Dutch for a long time. This should be an illustration for the Indonesian people to be able to defend their independence with various efforts to avoid attacks from outside, either directly or indirectly.