Jakarta History Museum: Difference between revisions

Jakarta History Museum / Fatahillah Museum / Batavia Museum
Museum Sejarah Jakarta

The front view of the museum seen from the Fatahillah Square (Template:Lang-id)
Established	1707
Location	Jl Taman Fatahillah 1, Jakarta Barat, Jakarta, Indonesia
Type	History museum
Visitors	69,708 (2006)[1] 75,067 (2007)[1]
Website	Jakarta History Museum

The Jakarta History Museum (Template:Lang-id), which is also known as Fatahillah Museum, is located in Jakarta, Indonesia. The building was built in 1710 as a city hall of Batavia. Jakarta History Museum displays historical objects from the prehistoric times of Jakarta to the founding of the town of Jayakarta in 1527, and through Dutch colonization from the 16^th century onwards until Indonesia’s Independence in 1945.

Jakarta History Museum is located in the building which was the former City Hall of Batavia, known in the past as Stadhuis. This building was the administrative headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and later of the Dutch Government. The current building was constructed in 1707 by the city government of Batavia, replacing the former city hall built in 1627. Governor General Abraham van Riebeeck inaugurated it in 1710.

The building contains 37 ornate rooms. There is also some cells located beneath the front portico which were used as dungeons. A Javanese freedom fighter Prince Diponegoro, who was treacherously arrested, was imprisoned here in 1830 before being banished to Manado, North Sulawesi. Another freedom fighter earlier imprisoned here around 1670 was Untung Suropati from East Java.^[2]

This building is located in front of a square, which in the past was known as Stadhuisplein, the City Hall Square. The square was used as the place of execution. The square is now known as Fatahillah Square (Template:Lang-id). In the center of the square is a fountain which was used as a water supply during colonial era. Also located in the square is a Portuguese cannon with a hand ornament showing a fico gesture, which is believed by people to be a font of fertility.^[3]

In 1970, the Fatahillah Square was declared a Cultural Property. This effort was the beginning of the development of the historical area of the City of Jakarta, carried out by the Government of DKI Jakarta. The Jakarta History Museum was inaugurated on March 30, 1974 as the center for collection, conservation and research for all kinds of objects of cultural property related to the history of the City of Jakarta.

Jakarta History Museum has a collection of up to 23,500 object, some of them are inherited from de Oude Bataviasche Museum (now the Wayang Museum). Collection that can be found in the museum are objects from the Dutch East Indies Company, ancient maps, paintings, ceramics, furnitures, and archeological objects from the prehistoric era such as ancient inscriptions and sword. museum. Jakarta History Museum also contains the richest collection of Betawi style furnitures from the 17^th to the 19^th century. The collections are divided into several rooms such as Prehistoric Jakarta Room, Tarumanegara Room, Jayakarta Room, Fatahillah Room, Sultan Agung Room, and MH Thamrin Room.^[3]

The museum also contains a replica of the Tugu Inscription from the age of Great King Purnawarman, which is the evidence that the center of the Kingdom of Tarumanegara was located around the seaport of Tanjung Priok on the coast of Jakarta. There is also a replica of the 16^th century map of the Portuguese Padrao Monument, a historical evidence of the ancient Sunda Kelapa Harbor.

• Lenzi, Iola (2004). Museums of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Archipelago Press. p. 200. ISBN 981-4068-96-9.

Media related to Jakarta History Museum at Wikimedia Commons

• Indonesia Tourism | Jakarta History Museum