Lawang Sewu, The Legendary Building That Saves Many Stories

Lawang Sewu, The Legendary Building That Saves Many Stories

What do you think when you hear the name "Lawang Sewu "? I am sure some of you associate Lawang Sewu with mystical (haunted) things, big buildings, many doors even called Sewu (Thousand), and many more. Yes ... all of these assumptions are true, even I myself think so. But it's all not enough just to hear from "people say" only, you have to come and prove it. Lawang Sewu legendary building built in the Dutch colonial period from 27 February 1904 to 1907. Lawang Sewu is located in the heart of Semarang City, adjacent to Tugu Muda, more precisely on the pemuda street. In the beginning, the building functioned as a Central Java railway headquarters owned by the Dutch named NISM (Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij.) Local people call it Lawang Sewu, because of the large number of doors and windows that resemble the door, even the people around assume that its doors reach a thousand, but in fact, leaves Lawang Sewu door is not enough thousand.

Behind the magnificent of the building, Lawang Sewu is also known as a haunted building, because during the Japanese occupation the basement was used for the slaughter of the indigenous people, then the corpses were dumped in the red river right next to the building, people around there regard Lawang Sewu is a haunted place (mystical). From the beginning of its development until now, Lawang Sewu had changed its function for example in Dutch colonial period used as central of railway office of central Java, besides it had been used as Office of Infrastructure of Regional Military Command (Kodam IV / Diponegoro) and Regional Office Kanwil) Ministry of Transportation of Central Java.

History of Lawang Sewu Development

Documentation photos

Lawang Sewu is an old building that until now still exist. This building has five buildings namely A, B, C, D, and E. Which was built at the same time. Building A and C was built on 27 February 1904 until 1907, then continued in 1916 until 1918 three other buildings were built, namely building B, building D, and building E. Each building has its own function, building A and B functioning for workspace, building D is used for horse stables, while building E is used for guard post.

I am at Lawang Sewu

Based on my interview with Mas Aris who has been working as a guide in Lawang Sewu for approximately 9 years, and the results of these interviews will be described in the next section.

Lawang Sewu was designed by prof. Jacob F. Klinkhamer (TH Delft) and BJ Quendag architecture domiciled in Amsterdam, other than that the labor taken to build Lawang Sewu is forced laborers in the Dutch colonial era or commonly called "corvee labor". The material used for the construction of Lawang Sewu, especially when the construction of building A and C materials directly imported from Europe, the materials are: marble, granite, tile, and steel, while teak using local teak wood. Buildings B, D, and E are built entirely with local materials. Lawang Sewu was built without the use of cement, but instead used a cement replacement made from sugar cane that was mixed with other ingredients so it became a very strong adhesive commonly called "Bligon." Besides Lawang Sewu was built without the use of chicken scratch, making the roof of this building in the form of curved, it's because the bricks are stacked so that the roof looks curved, such a technique that makes the building stand firmly until now.

This legendary building has a very large number of door stocks, 928 doors, 425 frames, and has 114 workspaces. All doors are made with teak wood that is about 50 years old, it makes the wood that is on the building is very sturdy even there are no termite bites at all on the door leaf, frame and also windows. The door at Lawang Sewu has a height of 2.5 meters, the door as high as it was made with the aim to facilitate air circulation, besides Lawang Sewu also has a basement that serves to store rainwater which then the rainwater will be stagnant under the building, so that the stagnant water was seeping through the floor and also the wall, consequently making the room becomes humid and cold. That is why if you are inside one of the buildings in Lawang Sewu, you will feel cool.

Lawang Sewu from Time to Time

Lawang Sewu had changed function several times, starting at the first time completely built in 1918, used as central train office of Central Java, in the Dutch colonial era, at that time Lawang Sewu named NISM (Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij .) After the Dutch surrender unconditionally, then Japan occupied Central Java and used Lawang Sewu as the headquarters of Kempetai, the Japanese Military Police is known for its sadistic and cruel.

The building also contains many stories in it, one of which is the Battle of the Youth Train (AMKA,) BKR, AMRI, and several other organizations with Kempetai and Kidobutai which began on October 15, 1945, to disarm Japan which has surrendered unconditionally to allies on at that time. Now Lawang Sewu has been a silent witness of the struggle of the fighters who had fallen on the battlefield at that time in order to seize the independence of Indonesia and now Lawang Sewu made one of 102 ancient buildings in the city of Semarang that deserve to be protected.

*closing*

A lot of articles about Lawang Sewu, Legendary Building that Saving Many Stories may be useful for all readers, especially for those of you who want to walk there. I hope readers will give me feedback so I can fix the shortcomings, so I can make a better article and certainly more useful for us all. That's all and thank you.

-EZ-

Baca Juga