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Fatahillah Square, heart of derelict town
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 04/18/2009 1:44 PM | City
Steal the game: A group of children play soccer in Fatahillah Square. Many children take advantage of the square to play sports, due to lack of open-air playgrounds in the city. (JP/PJ Leo)
Tree for kids: A visitor sits his two kids on a tree branch in front of Fatahillah Square so they can play with other children. (JP/PJ Leo)
At the heart of the Old Town area, lies Fatahillah Square, a 1.5-hectare plot of land in front of the Jakarta Historical Museum.
In September 2007, the city administration began its Old Town revitalization program by restoring Fatahillah Square, but not much face-lifting has been done since then.
The square is still a hub for people going to the Old Town area. Many only identify the Old Town with the areas nearby the square, discounting Sunda Kelapa harbor in North Jakarta and Pekojan area in West Jakarta.
This comes as no surprise, since the square is pretty much the only decent place for people from all walks of life to hang out.
Families, heritage lovers, budding photographers, students and lovers flock to the square especially at the weekend.
Museums around the square, although boasting interesting collections, are less popular than the square itself.
The city administration has tried to coax investors into revitalizing the area by restoring close to 200 rundown yet historical buildings. However bad traffic, smelly rivers and a number of seedy spots in Old Town have deterred big money from coming there.
But the flock that does come to the square shows the Old Town has not lost its charm.
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11/05/2009 12/07/2009 Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Hotel Jimbaran, Bali. - Choreography of Colours; Sardono W. Kusumo's first solo painting exhibition
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Bintang kechil (not verified) — Sun, 04/19/2009 - 11:12pm
My husband and I have always thought that Old Town needs to be preserved. It's such a beautiful part of JKT.
Per A. (not verified) — Sun, 04/19/2009 - 1:03pm
I’m an expat (Swedia) that moved to Jakarta few years ago and I’m trying to learn and experience as much as possible about my new country. I read this article about the “old Town area” Saturday morning and got excited, it sounded so nice. People joining on a square, where else can you do that in Jakarta !? I took my wife, new born son and one of my daughters with me and we took off to Fatahillah Square. We walked around for a while on the square and it was great, it was great to see people enjoying a day off together. People having picnic and watching some street entertainers, it was a great family atmosphere. We entered the Jakarta Historical museum and were guided around by a very nice guide, he explained a lot of the history and showed many nice historical items for us. But it made me sad to see that lots of people, mainly high school students don’t have any respect for these things. There were students using the furniture, students sitting in the windows and with their feet on these beautiful historical items. It’s great to see that students are coming to these places, but please respect your history. The Jakarta town should invest more money to restore this museum, surrounding buildings and maybe add some security to protect what’s left for the future. This area have a so big potential for being a nice place for people to come together and interact, it’s also a place for tourists……and we all know that tourists bring in money to Jakarta and Indonesia. It’s like some readers earlier have commented, open up Monas much more and make it more available for the people to come together.