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Jakarta Post

Vastenburg Fortress to undergo

The Surakarta municipality is going to restore the Vastenburg Fortress as part of a campaign to preserve its historic buildings

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas (The Jakarta Post)
Surakarta
Sat, March 17, 2012

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Vastenburg Fortress to undergo

T

he Surakarta municipality is going to restore the Vastenburg Fortress as part of a campaign to preserve its historic buildings.

The fortress is evidence of the Dutch colonial presence in Indonesia’s past.

It had become a polemical issue as to whether the municipality would assume control of the compound or whether land users would be granted extended use before the Defense Ministry, as the owner of the site, issued their approval on the proposed restoration work submitted by the municipality.

Head of the Central Java Prehistoric Legacy Conservation Center’s (BP3) preservation and usage section, Gutomo, said that restoration work would start this year, beginning with repairs to the western part of the fortress.

“We will start with the gate, which has an office-like building over the top of it,” Gutomo told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Vastenburg Fortress was built in 1745 by Baron Van Imhoff. It fell into Japanese hands in 1942 before the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), which acted as the RI Defense and Security Agency until 1986, took over in the wake of Japan’s defeat in World War II. A number of private companies currently operate inside the 56,866 square-meter fortress.

Among them are PT Benteng Gapuratama (46,265 m2), PT Benteng Perkasa Utama (9,295 m2) and PT Bank Danamon Indonesia (3,545 m2). The rest of the internal area accommodates individual holders.

BP3 Central Java will carry out the restoration work, according to Gutomo, with funds apportioned from the state budget channeled through the Education and Culture Ministry.

“It will be carried out in stages as we have a limited budget this year,” said Gutomo, adding that this year’s budget for the restoration was less than Rp 1 billion.

The fortress’ restoration is a top priority in the municipality’s preservation campaign, along with the excavation of fences at the three temples of Plaosan, which require pursuing a land-acquisition process.

Separately, Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo said that his administration had put forward a proposal for the restoration of the Vastenburg Fortress last year and received Defense Ministry approval at the end of February this year.

“This is our way of preserving the fortress. That way, we will be able to turn it into a well-managed heritage site,” he said.

He also said that the restoration work would not create clashes with the holders of the HGB (land permit), arguing that work would focus primarily on the fortress building itself and the moat around it rather than on the land.

The municipal administration has been urged by local heritage supporters to take over the property from the private sector, arguing that the current holders of the land use permit had abandoned the site.

“If they do not take care of the building properly then the state has the right to assume the HGB,” chairman of the Nusantara Cultural Heritage Caring Community (KPCBN), Agus Anwari, said.

Responding to their demand, head of the municipal administration’s legal division, Kinkin Sultanul Hakim, said that the administration preferred to be cautious in its approach as it did not yet have a strong legal basis to pursure such a course of action.

Kinkin said the administration was waiting for the approval of a municipal bylaw on spatial planning, which among other things would regulate the status of the fortress as a cultural preserve.

“If the bylaw recognizes it as a cultural preserve and the HGB holders are proved to have abandoned the property, then the municipal administration can take over the HGB from them,” Kinkin said.

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