Kota Tua also known as Oud Batavia, is a small area in Jakarta, Indonesia. This particular region has an area of 1.3 square kilometers across North Jakarta and West Jakarta. 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.
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.
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).
Museums In The Area of The Kota Tua
Wayang (Puppet) Museum
During the revolutionary period of Indonesian independence, puppet was used as a tool of political propaganda. No wonder if there are puppet-shaped figure of Bung Karno, Bung Hatta and other national figures. In addition, the puppet was also used as a means of spread of the religion. A priest from Surakarta never use puppets to tell stories in the gospels. Interestingly, he also made a mountain of puppets depicting the figure of Jesus Christ.
Bahari Museum
Maritime Museum complex consists of two main buildings, each of which has two floors, building the museum is quite clean and well maintained. On the ground floor, exhibited a variety of replica ships as well as a summary of maritime history in the archipelago. First floor exhibit parts of ancient ships and navigational equipment. Take time also to see the Tower Syahbandar who had been a point of zero mile city. If you climb to the top floor of this tower, you can see the Sunda Kelapa harbor views.
Fatahilah Museum
Fatahilah Building Museum was completed in 1710 and had become the governor's office the Dutch East Indies. The complex of buildings is quite extensive, consisting of the main building has three floors and two wings of the building on the left and right. The complex also has a basement that was once used as a prison. Until now this dungeon room can still be seen, complete with a chain to bind the prisoners' feet and bars.
Museum Fatahilah hold more than 23 thousand item collection consisting of ancient coins, ceramics, old furniture, paintings, inscriptions, and other historical artifacts. This collection of the most interesting museums include the sword of execution, the robust cannon from Macau, and the Hermes statue that used to adorn the bridge in front of the Harmony.
Bank Mandiri Museum
Collections of Museum Bank Mandiri is shown recording the historical development of Indonesian banking world. The goods on display among other ancient calculating machines, computers and printers that was several decades, and even ATM machines also exhibited of various ages. Mandiri Bank Museum is very interesting because a lot of imagination featuring dioramas that brought us to the bank office atmosphere in the past.
Bank Indonesia Museum
Among the museums that exist in theKota Tua area, the Museum of Bank Indonesia may be called the most modern museums. The room is equipped with air conditioning collectible items are laid out nicely as installation art. To add to the impression that the modern, the showroom is also equipped with touch screen monitors, video projectors and audio equipment that adds to the atmosphere alive.
It summarizes the history museum of Bank Indonesia since the time of the Dutch East Indies until the monetary crisis that occurred in the late 1990s. The most interesting part in this museum is an exhibit space nuministik banknotes and coins of various ages. Visitors also can enter the storage room of gold deposits which are now only filled with gold bullion counterfeits. See also the beautiful stained glass in the main staircase with a picture of Hermes, the Greek god who symbolizes prosperity.
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