Jakarta History Museum also referred as Fatahillah Museum or Batavia Museum is one of the most famous buildings of Indonesia. Situated in Old Town of Jakarta, it was constructed in the year 1710. The museum is situated towards south of Fatahillah Square and was opened in 1974. It exhibits many objects belonging to prehistory period, founding of Jayakarta in 1527, and period spanning from Dutch colonization in Indonesia to independence of country in 1948.
History
Jakarta History Museum is situated in the building, which had been the former City Hall of Batavia. In olden times the building has also been administrative headquarters of Dutch East India Company. The building comprises of 37 ornate rooms, and cells that lie beneath the front portico.
Collections
Jakarta History Museum has 23,500 objects and many of them have been received from Wayang Museum.
The wide collection in the museum comprises of paintings, furniture, historic maps, ceramics, pre-historic era archeological objects, and objects from the Dutch East Indies Company.
The museum also features rich collection of Betawi style furniture belonging to 17th -19th century.
The collections in the museum are exhibited in various rooms such as Fatahillah Room, Prehistoric Jakarta Room, MH Thamrin Room, Tarumanegara Room, Agung Room etc.
There is also a replica of Tugu Inscription treasured in the museum. The Tugu Inscription is known to belong to the age of Great King Purnawarman.
The museum also houses 16th century Portuguese Padrao Monument’s map replica.
Jakarta History Museum was closed in 2011 for various conservation activities and in 2014, it was opened again.