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History
and the museum buildings
The following text is borrowed after approval of the author from "Historical Sites of Jakarta". This highly informative book is published in 2007 by
Cipta Loka Caraka Foundation, Jakarta and captures the historical locations in and around Jakarta in old drawings, maps and modern photo's. The author, Adolf Heuken SJ,
is a known historian who lived quite a while in Jakarta. We would like to thank Pak Heuken for his contribution to this website.
North-north-west from the Lookout Tower a series of connected historic buildings can be seen that currently houses the Maritime Museum. The impressive old warehouses display a solid construction and typical Dutch style. All the connected buildings have been restored several times since the opening of the museum and are maintained as best as possible considering limited funds. These former warehouses date back to as early as 1652, but were altered and enlarged several times up to 1759.
Some of the warehouses were rebuilt in the end of the 17th century in order to create more space between the city wall and the warehouses. Different dates on stones appear above some doors of the museum which probably refer to the years when repairs, extensions or additions to the warehouses were executed. The Maritime Museum is part of the
"Westzijdsche Pakhuizen" or "Warehouses on the West bank". Here the VOC kept its enormous stock of nutmeg and pepper. Also coffee, tea and cloths were stored here before being shipped to various ports of Asia and Europe. Between the warehouses and the city wall in the front of the museum, the Company
kept supplies of copper and tin.
These precious metals were protected against rain by a wooden gallery attached to the front of the godowns. This broad gallery was also used by guards on patrol, because the path on the city wall in front of it is rather narrow. The gallery was attached to the second floor of the warehouses facing the waterfront, but has long gone since been taken away. The big iron hooks which once supporting the gallery can still be seen.
The remaining city wall in front of the Maritime Museum onwards to the bastion Zeeburg and a bit further west is all that is left of the wall that once surrounding Batavia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Only Zeeburg and Culemborg remain out of the twenty three bastions from that period.
"Historical Sites of Jakarta" is for sale in bookstores in Jakarta.
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