The Batavia / Jakarta Heritage

Kota Tua, Jakarta is an area of Dutch colonization inheritance which was well-known as Batavia in the 17th century. At Kota Tua area you can see old buildings with architecture style influenced by the Dutch or European architecture style, Chinese and even some of them with combination of Dutch and Chinese architecture. Some of the old buildings at Kota Tua area occupied as museums by the governor of DKI Jakarta. Kota Tua is one of a very interesting place or area to visit when you travel to Jakarta since it’s a center of historical tourism object in Jakarta.

Kota Tua

Interesting places or tourism objects you could see at Kota Tua, Jakarta are including Jakarta History Museum (which is also called as Fatahillah Museum), Wayang Museum, Fine Art and Ceramic Museum, Bank Mandiri Museum, Bank Indonesia Museum, Jakarta Kota Station (is also called Beos), Maritime Museum (Museum Bahari), Sunda Kelapa Harbor, Kota Intan Bridge, Syahbandar Tower, Batavia Café, Batavia Hotel and other old buildings.

History

Building with Europe Architecture Kota Tua, Jakarta, was the pioneer of the current Jakarta City. It was started from a small port at the mouth of Ciliwung River in about centuries ago. The port city was then developed became a busy international trading center. Journals from European journalists in the 16th century said that there’s a city, named Kalapa (Kelapa in Sundanese called kalapa, means coconut), seemed as the main port for a Hindu Kingdom named Sunda, with a capital of Pajajaran, located near to the current location of Bogor. Portuguese was the first fleet from Europe that came to the Kalapa Port. Kalapa, the port city was then attacked by Demak Kingdom, a kingdom in Kalapa neighborhood, under the leadership of Fatahillah. Kalapa Port was successfully conquered on 22nd June 1527 and since then the name was changed from Sunda Kalapa to Jayakarta, which means city of glory or victory. The date of 22nd June 1527 was then celebrated as the birthday of Jakarta City.

The Dutch came and taken away Jayakarta in the end of 16th century under the leadership of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. The Dutch changed the name of Jayakarta became Batavia and constructed buildings with the architecture style as they had in their country. In the Japanese colonization time from 1942 to 1945, the name of Batavia was changed to Jakarta (Jayakarta).