Fort Marlborough

Fort Marlborough (Indonesian Benteng Marlborough, also known as Malabero) is an English fort located in Bengkulu City, Sumatra. It was built between 1713-1719 by the East India Company under the leadership of Governor Joseph Collett as a defensive fort for the British Bencoolen. It was one of the strongest British forts in the eastern region, second only to Fort St. George in Madras, India.

Building

The fort is made of bricks 50 to 180 centimeters in thickness. The earthquakes of 2000, which registered 7.3 on the Richter magnitude scale, and of 2007, with its 3.5-meter tsunami, had no effect on the strongly built fort.

The fort has a rectangular layout, with an arrowhead-shaped bastion on each corner. The entrance to the fort is in the southwest, protected by a ravelin. A dry moat follows the trace of the fort. A wooden bridge spans the ditch that separates the main building from the front building. The southwest side has an arch entrance with a wooden door. The fort encompasses 2.7 hectares, and stands on a site of 4.4 hectares.