TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'Four Angles' the newly renovated cathedral museum
Inside look: The majestic Jakarta Cathedral has a vast wooden ceiling, stretching 60-meters long and 20-meters wide
Change Size
Inside look: The majestic Jakarta Cathedral has a vast wooden ceiling, stretching 60-meters long and 20-meters wide.
Standing gracefully on Lapangan Banteng square in Central Jakarta, the neo-gothic Jakarta Catholic cathedral has long been one of the city's main architectural attractions.
The majestic building was built in 1901 by Dutch priest Antonius Dijkmas and features 60 meter twin spires and a 45 m central spire.
The church, which was designed to form a cross, has two floors.
On the lower floor, there are three altars: the Altar of Saint Mary, which was completed in 1915; the Altar of Saint Joseph, which was built in 1922; and the central altar that holds a gold cross believed to have been made in the Netherlands in the 19th century and installed in 1956.
Statues of Ignatius de Loyola and Franciscus Xaverius and the marble baptism vessel also decorate the interior of the church, which is still actively used for mass services.
The second floor used to be used by the choir, but as the building has aged it was feared it could not hold too many people, so in 1991, then head priest Rudolf Kurris decided to make it a museum.
The museum ' which the Indonesian Museum Association named in 2012 as the best museum featuring a heritage building ' exhibits relics used for rituals, documentation on the spread of Catholicism in the country and an image of the cathedral painted on dried banana leaves by Kusni Kasdut, a notorious art thief who converted to Catholicism in prison.
Late last year, the museum was closed to the public for renovation. It reopened on Dec. 12 and is now air conditioned to better preserve the historical items.
An added benefit of the air conditioning is making churchgoers more comfortable during holy mass.
The reopening of the museum is being marked by a photography exhibition by photographers R. Haryanto, Kun Tanubrata, Sjaiful Boen and Dian Rosita.
'Four Angles' runs until Dec. 22 and then again from Jan. 5 to 31 and gives visitors four different angles of Jakarta Cathedral, which is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Indonesia.
Go to www.katedraljakarta.or.id for further information and opening hours.
' Photos by JP/Jerry Adiguna
