Hometown love

I have mentioned several legendary architectures in my blog through out the years: from Parthenon to Palladio buildings to Corbu's to Zaha's, but never had the chance to talk about the buildings in my hometown (not even Eastern architecture, I think, which is a shame). I think it's a self-discovery process to go back and re-visit all those buildings after so many years with my new developed architectural perspective. Therefore, I am going to show you guys my favorite building in my hometown, Tainan: The Fort Provintia, as known as the Chikan Tower.

Within only 400 years, Tainan had already been governed by the Dutch Republic, Empire of Japan, Qing Dynasty, and the Republic of China

Historical Context

I visited Volterra, Italy this summer, and learned about the idea of historical layers (Pre-Etruscan -> Etruscan -> Roman -> Medieval...etc). Tainan also as this sort of layers even though it's a relatively young city compare to others. Within only 400 years, Tainan had already been governed by the Dutch Republic, Empire of Japan, Qing Dynasty, and Republic of China, and the most amazing thing is that, the Fort Provintia had witnessed all these and documented all the historical contexts within its architecture! 

In 1624, the Dutch Republic established the settlement here in Tainan, and later on in 1652 built the Fort Provintia to defend off the locals. After the Dutch Republic retreated from Taiwan, the fort turned into a armory for Qing Dynasty. Starting from 1825, people start modifying the fort into multiple temples and classrooms. In 1895, the Empire of Japan conquered Taiwan during the first Sino-Japanese War, and turned the fort into a hospital to treat wounded soldiers. In 1918, Japanese turned the building into a school. After World War II in 1945, Taiwanese started the restoration of the monument. 

Amazing brick works! These sort of construction methods are dying out in Tainan. 

The art of ceramics is fading away too. Most of the ceramic tiles these days are imported from Italy.

The building contains a lot of ornaments that have to do with folk stories and traditions

Please take a look at the two images above. The left hand side is from the Fort Provintia, and the right hand one is Church Santa Maria Novella in Florence. I found it very interesting that even though the constructs have difference meaning and purposes, but they both use scultural turtles to hold heavy objects. There is some sort of similarities in between civilizations and architectural languages, something more intuitive and primitive in the design. 

Now book a flight here and visit Tainan!