Fatahillah, the Jakarta History Museum

Just close to the main station, walking to the northwest direction, we encounter a relatively old building located in the area measuring by 1300 square meters known as Fatahillah Museum, also known as Jakarta History Museum or the Museum of Batavia. It seems that the conservation of the museum has been long neglected but now the condition becomes better as it is undergoing the major renovation.

This building was once the Stadhuis built in the early 18th century. The City Hall building was consisting of the main building with two wings in the east and west as well as side buildings used as offices, courtrooms, and underground spaces were once used as a prison. In 1974, the building was later inaugurated as Fatahillah Museum.

Building architecture was of the 17th century Baroque-style classic with three ground floors with yellow paint, while windows and door frames were made of dark green teak wood. The main roof has a pointer part in every wind direction.

Jakarta History Museum building was built in 1620 by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the then governor general, as the second City Hall in 1626 (the first one was built in 1620 near the east of Kalibesar). At that time, the building was only single-stage while the second-floor was built later.

Only around 20 years later the building was in very bad condition. Jakarta’s soil is very unstable and the weight of the building made it slightly tilted. The easy solution at that time was raising the floor about half a meter. In 1649, apart the floor was excavated to build five underground cells. The dungeons were used by the Dutch to keep prisoners including Prince Diponegoro before he was removed to Makassar in 1830. There had been rooms added in the east and west sides of the main building, and improvements and changes continued to be carried out until it took the form we see today.

This building was once used as the Raad van Justitie (judiciary council), and later on, the building was used as the West Java Provincial Government Office in the year of 1925 to 1942. In the era of Japanese occupation, the Japanese converted the building to become the warehouse. After independence, it became the City Military Command headquarters, which later became the West Jakarta District Military Command. In 1968 the building was submitted to the Government of Jakarta and was inaugurated as the Jakarta History Museum in 1974.

Collections

Its collections were amounting to 23,500 pieces inherited from the Old Batavia Museum, as the result of the Government procurement efforts and donations of individuals and institutions. Collections on display are more than 500 pieces, others are kept in the storage. The age of the collections is as old as 1500 years especially those related to people's lives such as prehistoric tools and a good variety of materials including metal, stone, wood, glass, crystal, earthenware, ceramic, porcelain, cloth, leather, paper and bone.

Other collections include the history of Jakarta, replicas of relics of the Tarumanegara and Pajajaran kingdoms, the findings of archaeological excavations in Jakarta, antique furniture from the 17th century until the 19th, which were the fusion of European style, People's Republic of China, and Indonesia. There are also ceramics, pottery, and stone inscriptions. The collection is available at several rooms, such as Prehistoric, Tarumanegara, Jayakarta, Fatahillah, Sultan Agung and MH Thamrin Rooms.

There are also various collections of Betawi culture, numismatic, and pedicabs. Among the interesting collections are the old cannon (Jagur) which some superstitious people believe to have magical powers, prehistoric community equipment, inscription and weapons, the statue of Hermes (removed from the Harmony intersection where it was once put there as the bridge ornament), the sword of execution, old furniture and painting of VOC and the Dutch East Indies Governor-General from 1602 to 1942. The collections were periodically carried out in rotation so that all items could be enjoyed by visitors. To enrich the museum collections, the directors called for the public, individuals, and institutions to lend or donate their properties to the museum.

Since 2001 the museum held annual seminars on the nature of the museum, both national and international scale, discussing, among others, the existence of the museum as viewed from various aspects. To reconstruct the history of past events, especially court for criminals and suspected persons, in some occasions, we can see some improvisations about the implementation of the court at the same time understand the condition around the 17th century.