Lat: -8.553826082428100, Long: 125.579956265490000

Díli

Díli, Timor

Historical Background and Urbanism

After abandoning the besieged stronghold of Lifau in August 1769, the governor Teles de Meneses (1768- 1775) and the population that embarked on the São Vicente and Santa Rosa with him arrived at Dili on 10 October. Although their original destination was Vemasse, they found a place with propitious conditions for settlement. And the appeals of the chief of Motael, who governed the region, for the Portuguese to help him in the struggle with his enemies ensured his trus- tworthiness. On the one hand, Dili’s geographic situation was propitious to set up a stronghold. Situated more or less in the centre of Timor’s north coast, standing on a bay of calm waters, protected by the Fatumaca and Tibar points and the island of Atauro just off shore, Dili offered good conditions for navigation and defence. On the other hand, the place had a good supply of drinking water and arable land for the cultivation of cereals. Although the terrain was swampy and unhealthy, a circumstance that would lead the governor Frederico Leão Cabreira (1839- 1844) to propose the building of another township on a different site many years later, Dili has remained the capital of Timor until today. In fact, the mountains around Dili were a physical defensive barrier and a refuge for the population in the event of an attack, but they limited the spread of the town. The unstable nature of the land near the top of the mountains and the degradation of the vegetal cover as a result of human occupation created conditions for landslides to sweep down on to the coastal strip. The proximity of the mountains and the landslides made this strip vulnerable to floods that destroyed coastal areas and the beds of rivers and streams – which were dry for seven months of the year – and created swamps due the retention of water in pockets where it could not leach. The seismic activity in the region, the existence of the swamps, the landslides and the instability of the soils advised against human occupation of the area. However, the sudden flight from Lifau and the contrast between the two places probably influenced the decision to set up a new trading post. There was just one fortress, protected by a ditch and twelve bulwarks, when the Portuguese arrived. Due to the pressure that the Dutch, British and French (who were then at war) exerted on the colony of Timor, it was decided to erect a more solid construction in 1796, this time in loose stone and clay. Public buildings were constructed at the same time and we know from reports of travellers that there was a governor’s residence and a church dedicated to Saint Anthony at the beginning of the 19th century. It was during the governorship of José Maria Mar- ques (1834-1839) that the first urban plan for Dili was elaborated. A long avenue running along the coast and roads to surrounding areas were built, while a barra- cks for the infantry and a new residence for the gover- nor were erected. A school for the education of the children of headmen and a hospital at Lahane, in the suburbs, were built some years later. In 1873, when Timor was elevated to the rank of Overseas Province – until then it had been under the administration of Macau – Dili acquired the statute of city. As the occupation became more stabilised, a network of canals was dug in order to drain the swampland and the water deposited by the landslides. The flooded land has a vegetal cover that forms lines of penetration between the mountains and the sea, a primary structure of seasonal trails of transversal penetration for seven months of the year and, simultaneously, a structured network of vegetal cover that encompasses the Taci and Tolo marshes and the wetlands that are the result of the draining of the original swamplands. All this makes the area predominantly green and, at times, exuberant. In 1866, however, Dili suffered the first of many calamities that would ravage it. A fierce fire destroyed the barracks, the governors’ palace, the church and numerous houses. Afonso de Castro, who had been governor from 1859 to 1863, described the city a year after the catastrophe as a city where there was not one building worthy of mention, classifying the public buildings that had been quickly and poorly constructed as mere “huts”. Reconstruction was slow, not only due to the lack of finance, but also to the shortage of building materials and skilled labour, which was a reflection on the peripheral character of the colony. But efforts were made to recover the city. In the 1880s, Maria Isabel Tamagnini thought that Dili was “not as bad as I had imagined” and referred to the existence of several brick and mortar buildings, mentioning the barracks, customs house, a hospital and a prison. Timor enjoyed a period of progress under the governorship of José Celestino da Silva (1894-1908). Determined to develop the colony, the governor imple- mented reforms in the administrative and economic structure that led to progress. He promoted work on public sanitation, built roads and schools, a library and a museum, plus a new hospital at Lahane, generalising the use of more solid materials such as stone, brick and tiles. The city took on a more European look. Many of these buildings, however, were razed during the Second World War. The Japanese invasion and the fierce fighting with the allied forces caused numerous victims and the destruction of a large part of Dili. In the face of the devastation and the fact that the insalubrity of the city was a problem, the authorities decided to found a new capital in the surrounding mountains, just as governor Leão Cabreira had proposed a century before. The first stone was actually laid, but the exiguity of the site chosen and the risk of landslides led to the project being shelved in favour of reconstruction, for which the Portuguese government allocated generous funding. A new governors’ palace, a high school, a health centre, housing for civil servants and other buildings were constructed. The preamble of Dili’s Urbanisation Plan of 1951, dili drawn up by the architect João António de Aguiar, refers to the fact that following the Japanese occupation the city “practically ceased to exist from an urban point of view” and launches the concept of a new organisation in which different ethnic groups would be housed in separate urban areas, each one being granted with its own public, commercial and residential amenities in keeping with the customs of each group. Everything would be organised around a civic centre that would be built on the site of the original nucleus and would include the chief public amenities, shops, housing and hotels. The plan also proposed the draining of the swampy areas and the general sanitation of the city, using the existing canal network, and envisaged the construction of a hippodrome and a stadium between the civic centre and the mountains. Two residential nuclei would be erected on the shores of the bay, one to the west between the civic centre and the lighthouse for Europeans and another to the east for Chinese, to the south of which, nearer the mountains, would be a housing estate for the native population. The siting of residential nuclei along the Avenida Marginal (coast road) gave the city a cosmopolitan air, strengthened today by the present occupation of the European nucleus by embassies. Preserving the large, original trees, with a one-way, two-lane street for traffic and a wide pavement for pedestrians, the coast road has become the city’s favourite public prome- nade. Two fifteen metre-wide streets that cross the city longitudinally provide regional and suburban connections and support for the grid system of stre- ets and canals. As a result of the economic progress Portugal enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s and the policy of affirming sovereignty of the overseas territories implemented by the Estado Novo – a consequence of the wave of decolonisation that was sweeping the world – Timor enjoyed a certain growth that was mirrored in the construction of several modernist buildings, the best examples of which are the Banco Nacional Ulramarino (National Overseas Bank) and the Timor Commercial, Agricultural and Industrial Association. The Indonesian invasion in 1975 and, above all, the disastrous intervention of the integrationist militias in 1999 following the referendum that confirmed the wish of the Timorese for independence once more led to the destruction of Dili. The resilience of the people, however, and the aid supplied by multiple international organisations and the governments of several nations permitted the recovery of the city.

Religious Architecture

Church of Santo António de Motael

Military Architecture

Infantry Barracks

Equipment and Infrastructures

Housing

House on Avenida Nicolau Lobato