The Potential of Ternate City Center as an Identity-Forming Element of a Historical City Area

The city of Ternate is a city that developed from the 6th to 17th centuries, influenced by Portuguese and Dutch Colonial hegemony as well as ethnic Indonesian traders and ethnic immigrants. As a historical area with a variety of cultural heritage, as the city develops, it is starting to lose the identity attached to the central area of Ternate City. The aim of this research is to identify the potential of the central area of Ternate City as an identity-forming element in a historic city area. This research uses a qualitative approach, which focuses on searching for field observation data and in-depth interviews supported by literature studies through relevant agencies and relevant research. The results of the research show that there are three important elements identified as historical heritage consisting of: 39 pieces of cultural heritage in the form of building sites and structures, 6 areas whose existence has historical value in the central area of Ternate City, and 3 activity networks whose existence has a strong relationship with the existence of the settlement. These three elements are also factors that form the central area of Ternate City and can be strong markers and identity values that the center of Ternate City is a historic city area.