Fort Goryokaku
Fort Goryokaku (Goryōkaku) is a massive, star shaped,
Western style citadel, which was built in the last years of the Edo Period
for the defense of Hakodate against the imperialist threat posed by the
Western powers.
A few years later, the fort became the site of a civil war between an
army of the shogunate and the superior troops of the newly established
Meiji government. In the center of the fort stands the Former Magistrate
Office, from where the officers of the shogunate administered Hokkaido.