Travel to Indonesia: Jakarta: Kota

The Kota is the formerly walled part of Dutch Batavia. In includes the neighborhoods shown in the previous chapters but extends up the Kali Besar and east to Fatahillah Square. In this small neighborhood, there's still a colonial atmosphere, heavy with administrative relics.

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The Kali Besar upstream a few minutes' walk from the Chicken Market Bridge. The buildings are shops down, homes up, with rooms atop the shaded colonnades.

A close-up of the form.

A few of the buildings have characteristically Dutch gables.

Another instance, not so well-preserved.

Some of the buildings have their gables parallel to the street; others, perpendicular to it. Note the red building midway down the street.

It's the Toko Merali, or Red Shop (1730). Actually two houses, it was occupied at one time by Baron Van Imhoff, governor-general in the 1740s.

Wallside plaque.

To the east of the canal, the Dutch built a large square. On its east side was the hall of justice (1870), now a fine-arts museum.

On its south side was the Stadhuis or city hall (1710), now the Jakarta History Museum.

Dungeons in the basement of the city hall.

Upstairs, there's fine cabinetry, probably made by Chinese craftsmen.

Another instance of their handiwork.

A late addition: Bank Indonesia, built in 1910 as the Java Bank but renovated in the 1930s.

Near the end of empire: the stasiun kota, or city station, built in 1919 and designed by F.J.L. Ghijels. The building has been compared to the very similarly shaped Helsinki Station of 1904, designed by Eero Saarinen.

The barrel-vault girders were imported from the Netherlands.