Kota Tua Old Batavia in Jakarta
Part of the Jakarta travel guide — see every topic in All Jakarta Guides.
Kota Tua is what remains of Batavia, the walled Dutch city founded in 1619 that ran the East Indies for three centuries. The core is Fatahillah Square, a cobbled plaza ringed by Dutch civic buildings, and around it a district of warehouses, canals and shophouses in various states of restoration and collapse. It is the only part of Jakarta that looks its age, and after a long restoration programme it has become the city's most-visited area — busy with Indonesian day trippers at weekends and pleasantly quiet on a weekday morning.
Fatahillah Square
The cobbled plaza at the centre, ringed by the old Stadhuis — Batavia's city hall, completed in 1710 and now the Jakarta History Museum — along with the Wayang puppet museum and the Fine Art and Ceramics museum in the former court of justice. Cafe Batavia occupies a 1830s building on the north side and is worth a drink for the room alone. At weekends the square fills with rented bicycles in bright colours, street performers and food carts; on a weekday morning you can have it almost to yourself.
The museums
The Jakarta History Museum covers the city from prehistory through Batavia to independence, in the building the Dutch governed from; the cells beneath it held prisoners including Prince Diponegoro. The Wayang Museum holds one of the largest puppet collections anywhere, covering shadow, rod and stick traditions from across the archipelago and beyond. Bank Indonesia Museum, in a restored 1909 bank, is unexpectedly excellent and free. All are inexpensive, and all are more interesting than the square itself.
Sunda Kelapa
The old port, twenty minutes north, and the reason Batavia existed. Wooden pinisi schooners — Bugis-built cargo sailing vessels, some over forty metres long — still tie up along the quay and load timber and cement by hand. It is a working harbour, not a museum: crews live aboard, planks run from deck to dock, and nothing is arranged for visitors. A small fee gets you onto the quay and boatmen offer harbour tours. Go in the morning and wear shoes you do not mind ruining.
Practicalities
Jakarta Kota station, the 1929 art deco terminus, is on the KRL Commuterline and is the easiest arrival; the MRT does not reach here. Go early: the square is hot and shadeless by ten and packed at weekends. Museums generally open around nine and close by three or four, and most close on Mondays. Combine Kota Tua with Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown, which begins a few streets south and is the better half of the morning.
Kota Tua Old Batavia at a glance
| Founded | Batavia, 1619 — the Dutch East Indies capital |
|---|---|
| The centrepiece | Fatahillah Square and the 1710 Stadhuis |
| Best museum | Jakarta History Museum; Wayang Museum for puppets |
| The working port | Sunda Kelapa — wooden pinisi schooners still load by hand |
| Getting there | KRL Commuterline to Jakarta Kota station (1929) |
| Timing | Weekday morning; museums mostly close Mondays |