To use the PostGIS types, you must: - have the postgis.jar in your CLASSPATH - have a PostgreSQL JDBC Connection instance Connection conn = new Connection(); ((org.postgresql.Connection)conn).addDataType("geometry","org.postgis.PGgeometry"); ((org.postgresql.Connection)conn).addDataType("box3d","org.postgis.PGbox3d"); To build the examples: - put the jar file containing the PostgreSQL JDBC under postgis/original/jars/postgresql.jar The file might be named jdbc7.1-1.2.jar originally - edit the file TestServer.java to adjust the connection information, run the test with 'make jtest'