A beautiful Dutch villa in ruins<\/p>\n
By Ida Indawati Khouw<\/p>\n
The hinterland of Batavia was home to beautiful country
\nhouses. Today most of the villas are gone and the remaining few,
\nlike Groeneveld villa in East Jakarta, is in a deplorable state.
\nThis 66th article on old and protected buildings in Jakarta
\ntraces Groeneveld villa's history.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The population was sparse. The eastern
\ncountryside was dotted with big, beautiful European villas
\nstanding on lush green fields.<\/p>\n
The mansions in the eastern outskirts of Batavia belonged to
\nDutch colonial masters who had a taste for high-class comfort.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to even imagine such an environ existing now
\nin Jakarta, where people fight for every inch of space. In fact,
\nif Jakartans had realized the importance of preserving historical
\nbuildings, people would have had the chance to see the heritage.<\/p>\n
The beauty of the villas were well-known. Visitors to the city
\ncenturies ago extolled the Dutch villas built outside the old
\ncity of Batavia ( present downtown Kota).<\/p>\n
Most of the landhuis, as the Dutch called the villas, are now
\nneglected. Many of them are in ruins like the Tandjong Oost
\nmansion on Jl. Gedong in East Jakarta, right at the T-junction of
\nJl. Condet Raya.<\/p>\n
Once regarded as the most beautiful villa in Batavia, it
\ncaught fire in 1985 and it is just a heap of rubble now. The
\ninside is dirty. Chicken coops are all over the place. Living in
\nhumble houses around the ruined villa are families of officers of
\nthe Tanjung Timur police precinct.<\/p>\n
Catching fire<\/p>\n
Local residents say the famous villa caught fire when a stove,
\nbelonging to the occupants of the neglected building, exploded.<\/p>\n
The Tandjong Oost mansion (which literally means the East
\nCape) located at the present Tanjung Timur area in East Jakarta,
\nwas so named because it was built on the east side of the cape of
\nthe Ciliwung river. Its main building had annexes on its left and
\nright, connected only by a broad roof. At that time, it was
\nlocated far from the main road to Bogor but was visible from the
\nroad.<\/p>\n
The mansion was originally called Groeneveld (Green Field)
\nafter the surrounding green fields but another theory has it that
\nit was named after Clasina Helena Coop a Groen, wife of the
\nestate's first owner Pieter van den Velde.<\/p>\n
During the era of VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, the
\nDutch trading company which built Batavia), Tandjong Oost was
\nlocated far from the city center. Dutch writer V.I. van den Wall
\ndescribed in his book, Batavia's het Huis Groeneveld of Tanjung
\nOost (Batavia's Groeneveld House of Tandjong Oost) that to reach
\nthe area one needed about two hours of walk from Meester
\nCornelis (the present Jatinegara in East Jakarta).<\/p>\n
It was not surprising that the rich built mansions at remote
\nareas in the 18th century because life in Batavia was becoming
\nunhealthy. Therefore the well-to-do built country houses on huge
\nproperties on the city outskirts, safe from animals, gangs of
\nrunaway slaves or the Dutch's enemies like the Mataram and Banten
\nindigenous kingdoms.<\/p>\n
Rich people first moved to present Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta and
\nAncol not far from the Kota area, later to Jl. Gunung Sahari and
\nJl. Hayam Wuruk and Jl. Gajah Mada--formerly called Molenvliet.<\/p>\n
Then people moved further to the south, even to Greater
\nJakarta area of Bogor (Buitenzorg) in West Java, where the houses
\nsometime looked like palaces.<\/p>\n
An English traveler noted in 1765: \"The ground, for about 10
\nor 12 miles round Batavia is pretty well cultivated. The
\ngentlemen have their country houses, gardens and ponds after the
\nDutch mode and must keep a numerous armed servant...\"<\/p>\n
Unique architecture<\/p>\n
The villas had unique architectural styles as they were a
\ncombination of Dutch, Chinese and local architecture. Van den
\nWall described Groeneveld as having an ancient Dutch style.<\/p>\n
Van den Velde, a government official, built the two-story
\nmansion after buying several plots of land from Ni Hoe Kong, the
\nexiled Chinese captain during the notorious Chinese massacre in
\nthe old city in the 1740s, and from the Sundanese regent from
\nCianjur, Aria Wiratanoe Datar, in 1742.<\/p>\n
The owner started to build his big mansion in 1756. It
\nconsisted of three separate buildings with the two annexes for
\nguests.<\/p>\n
The building's most interesting part was its central window
\nwhich was described by van den Wall in 1932 as \"most amazing with
\nits rich ornaments\". There was also an ornamental silver shield
\nwith the carving of a crane (bird) inside, which was the symbol
\nof the Craan family who once owned the estate.<\/p>\n
\"From the windows in the upper room people could enjoy the
\nbeautiful panorama of the Ciliwung river flowing through the area
\nand the wide streets with big tamarind trees on its sides. There
\nwere also ponds with flowers in the middle surrounded by green
\nfields,\" van den Wall says.<\/p>\n
In the course of time, rooms were added at the rear end of the
\nmansion for female children to stay after their marriage.<\/p>\n
Within the complex were also cannons which were fired to honor
\ngovernor generals passing through on their way to Bogor
\n(Buitenzorg).<\/p>\n
Life in the hinterlands was made lively with events like sail
\nboat racing when all of landlords would gather.<\/p>\n
The estate's ownership changed many times after the death of
\nvan den Velde in 1759, not long after the building's
\nconstruction. The property was first sold to Adriaan Jubbels.
\nAfter Jubbels death in 1763, the mansion was bought by Jacobus
\nJohannes Craan.<\/p>\n
Craan, the first secretary of the Batavian Society of Arts and
\nSciences, improved the building and added the carvings to the
\ndoors.<\/p>\n
Through the marriage of one of Craan's daughters, the house
\npassed to Willem Vincent Helvetius van Riemsdijk, a usurer sugar
\nbaron and also the son of Jeremias van Riemsdijk who was governor
\ngeneral between 1775 and 1777. Vincent became the biggest estate
\nowner in Batavia but he did not take much care of the lands he
\nacquired.<\/p>\n
He became rich through the tribute he demanded from the native
\nregents of western Java but he went too far and was finally
\ndismissed from government office for mismanagement.<\/p>\n
Vincent had 14 children by his wife Catharina Craan and
\nanother 12 from his six servants. Children borne from the
\nservants had reversed family name: Kijdsmeir.<\/p>\n
A totally different personality was his son Daniel, who really
\nlived in this estate and rarely visited Batavia. He was a good
\nfarmer and administered the estate well. At that time, 6,000 cows
\ngrazed Tanjung Timur, which became a renowned dairy farm in the
\n1830s.<\/p>\n
Daniel van Riemsdijk spoke better Malay than Dutch. He had
\nthree daughters by a Malay woman called Mea. Through their oldest
\ndaughter Dina, the house passed on to the family of her husband
\nAment.<\/p>\n
It remained in his possession until World War II changed
\neverything.<\/p>\n
The building gained historical significance during the
\nIndonesian independence struggle when it became the headquarters
\nof Barisan Pelopor, an underground movement against the Japanese
\noccupation (1942-1945), which was led by Sukarno who later became
\nthe first president of the country.<\/p>\n
The group used the building between 1945 and 1946 to discuss
\ntheir plans and strategies against the Japanese troops who had
\nbeen using the estate as a warehouse.<\/p>\n
After the first Dutch aggression in 1947 and the second
\naggression in 1948, the mansion was taken over by the NICA Dutch
\ncolonial army who turned it to a rubber plantation.<\/p>\n
After World War II the estate was purchased by a certain Haji
\nSarmili who then sold it to the Jakarta Police in 1962.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-beautiful-dutch-villa-in-ruins-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}