Lawang Sewu

On this weekend,  I visited Semarang, a capital city of Province central Jave because of my best friend wedding :). I went there from Jakarta with my best friend Sri by train. Our driver in Semarang was our friend at collage, thanks to Tirto Sunaryo who accompanied us patiently

Semarang has its own charming with contrasting modern mid-rises, Dutch colonial architecture, Chinatown, and small kampong jutting against each other. 

But, unfortunately We just have a little time to explore Semarang.  We visited Lawang Sewu  building which located at Pemuda roundabout. 

In the center of Lawang Sewu Building

Lawang Sewu which the meaning is thousand doors. See the pictures below and you'll see the reason why this bulding called Lawang Sewu... So many door, isn't  it?

Doors in Lawang Sewu

The history of this building cannot separated from Indonesia train history. Because this building has been built as Het Hoofdkantooor van Nederlansch-Indische Spoorweg Maatscappij  (NIS) or center officer NIS. NIS was the private train office in Indian-Dutch Government.

 

In that time, I think this building was really high-tech :D While society in Indonesia still take a bath at river side, this building has a beautiful toilet as seen below,  equipped with sanitary ceramic for had wash, closet, etc.

This building keep cool although weather in surrounding building is warm. Not because this building used AC, because that time when this building had built,  AC hadn't invented. This building keep cool because in  the  underground level has area  to collect water. The water from  well drain to upper level through pipe in the tower of this building. Because of drain of water makes this building keep cool. In addition,  the attic was designed to prevent the sunlight.

In the Japanese colonial period, this building become defense headquarters. So, in the underground used as a jail and the massacre of patriots Indonesia. This building has long been abandoned and  become famous because of  horror stories which spread among community.

But now  restoration has been performed, this building not scary anymore. In this building there a room to display historical story of this building. Sometimes we don't respect the heritage which we have, because we didn't know how meaningful the story behind....