'No Fort in Fort City': Lost Heritage and the Shift of Urban Conservation in Tangerang, Indonesia

Abstract

The progress of modern heritage conservation has now reached a very local level. The need for researching and strengthening locals' history and identity is inevitable, yet oftentimes the physical heritage was lost before the idea of preservation really caught on. As a local city that bears the retrospective name "Benteng" (fort) reflecting its history, Tangerang City is similarly challenged with the lack of actual fort heritage. This paper attempts to explain the dynamics in how the lost heritage had shaped the city identity throughout architecture and urban structure. This research shows that the disappearance of physical heritage consequently led to the loss of the main historical identity of Tangerang. It affected how local government and communities take different conservation strategies to develop other potentials of the place, including architectural buildings and urban landscape eco-tourism surrounding the old site of the fort. This indicates a shift in the city conservation efforts to other alternative to perpetuate the reminiscence of the historic city produced in various form of commodification of the memory about "Benteng" in Tangerang, Indonesia.