Historical building awaits attention

Historical building awaits attention

Suherdjoko, Contributor, Semarang

A tourist visiting the city was surprised to see a huge, unique
building that stands in a strategic area adjacent to Tugu Muda
monument had been left abandoned. It was in a poor condition,
dirty and gloomy.

"It's a pity. The building has historical value and could
become a tourist attraction," Saraswati, a resident of
Yogyakarta, sighed. She wondered why the local administration did
not turn it into a hotel, or at least an office building.

She was referring to Gedung Lawang Sewu, which literally means
a building with a thousand doors, at the end of Jl. Pemuda. It is
called Gedung Lawang Sewu because it has many doors. The upper
part of each door takes a shape of an arch with holes on it.

The two-story building has an L shape, with the corner facing
the Tugu Muda monument. The main door is located just at the
corner and is sandwiched by two towers, each with an octagonal
cupola on top.

It was designed by two Dutch architects, C. Citroen, from the
firm J.F. Klinkhamer, and B.J. Quendag, in 1862 for Nederlandsch
Indische Spoorwegmaatschapij, or NIS, the first train company in
Java. Officials of the company who worked in the building
monitored the Semarang-Tanggung and Tanggung-Kedungjati train
routes, as well as the Kedungjati-Surakarta, Surakarta-Yogyakarta
and Kedungjati-Ambarawa routes.

The trains were operated to transport plantation commodities
in the area of the Yogyakarta and Surakarta kingdoms, which were
under the colonial government. Those commodities were exported to
other countries.

The first railway was made in Java following the completion of
road construction from Anyer to Panarukan during the
administration of Daendles.

At that time, the building faced Wilhelmina Park, a beautiful
recreational area with facilities to play music. In front of the
building, a city tram on the Bulu to Jomblang route used to pass.
The tram tracks was still there until the 1980s, but now, there
is no sign of them as the road has been leveled and covered over
with asphalt.

Gedung Lawang Sewu also reflected the approach of the
architects who made the design to suit the local climate.
Therefore, the architecture in the century became contextual, and
was called Indische.

In October 1945 war broke out when Indonesians fought Japanese
soldiers. During the Five-Day War, the ground in front of the
building became a battlefield and many Indonesian fighters were
killed there.

Today, Gedung Lawang Sewu is totally abandoned. Many of the
windows and doors are rotten and moss covers much of the walls,
while the yard is dirty. The once magnificent building now looks
like it is haunted and is home to many swallows, spiders and
bats. Local people even call it sarang hantu (ghost
headquarters). Maybe it is not true, but one thing is clear: the
building is very neglected.

The state of Gedung Lawang Sewu is in stark contrast to the
surrounding buildings. Opposite is the luxury official house of
the governor while a bank can be seen across Jl. Pemuda and a
cathedral is situated to the south of the building, all of them
well maintained.

A private company reportedly planned in the 1990s to turn the
building into a hotel. However, development of the plan did not
reach fruition. Semarang mayor Sukawi Sutarip does not know what
to do with the building.

"We simply try to maintain the original design of old
buildings in Semarang that are on the list of protected
buildings," he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview. He
added the local administration still lacked a strong legal basis
to protect old buildings. As a result, some building owners
changed the design.

The fate of old buildings in Semarang is sad indeed. At least
15 of 176 protected buildings were leveled or totally renovated
by the owners, according to research in 1996 and 1997 by deputy
chairwoman of the Central Java chapter of the Indonesian
Architects' Association Widya Wijayanti. "Maybe the total has
increased since then," she said.