Bandung Colonial Heritage: Buildings, Streets and Sites

Bandung colonial heritage is the set of government offices, civic halls, streets, a court, a railway station and a cathedral that the colonial period left behind in the city. Most of these buildings are still standing and still in use, and a visitor can read a good part of the city’s history from them without leaving the centre. Knowing what each kind of building was for makes it easier to choose which places to see first. For the wider city, start at the Bandung hub.

What Bandung colonial heritage covers

The Dutch era left Bandung with four overlapping layers. The first is the government layer, which is the large administrative buildings of the 1920s. The second is the commercial layer, shopping streets and Art Deco shopfronts and offices built for a European and wealthy local clientele. The third is the layer of events, places where something happened that changed the country, such as the 1930 courtroom speech, the 1946 burning of the southern city and the 1955 conference. The fourth is the infrastructure layer, the railway and the institutions that trained engineers and architects. Each place sits mainly in one of these layers, and knowing which layer you want makes the choice much easier.

The buildings also overlap in time. A building put up for one purpose in the 1910s was often remodelled in the late 1920s or the 1930s, and some were renamed after independence. That is why the same building can appear under a Dutch name in one account and an Indonesian name in another. Where a name is in common use, that name is used below.

Civic buildings from the 1920s: Gedung Sate and the field in front of it

The most recognisable colonial building in the city is Gedung Sate. Construction began in July 1920 and was finished in September 1924, under a design team led by the Dutch architect J. Gerber, with E. H. de Roo and G. Hendriks also named as designers. It was first the office of the colonial government’s department for state enterprises. Its nickname comes from the grilled-meat skewer, because the tall central pinnacle looks like one, and the six spheres on it stand for the six million guilders that paid for the building. The style mixes European design with local architectural elements. Today it is the seat of the West Java provincial governor and it also houses a museum. The building is worth seeing from the outside first, because its front faces the open field that gives the complex its setting.

That field is Lapangan Gasibu, which the Dutch named Wilhelmina Plein after the queen. After independence it was renamed Lapangan Diponegoro, but the name most people use came from a football group, Gabungan Sepakbola Indonesia Bandung Utara, whose initials were shortened to Gasibu. That name had taken hold by about 1955. On Sunday mornings the field fills with people exercising, and it is an easy place to walk or jog at any time. If you want to see the field and the building together, plan the walk so you can take in both on the same loop.

Streets built for a promenade: Braga Street and Jalan Asia Afrika

Braga Street is the street most visitors have in mind when they think of colonial Bandung. It began as a carriage route, nicknamed Pedatiweg after the horse carts that used it, and it ran to a coffee warehouse that is now the city hall. The railway from Batavia reached Bandung in 1884, and the street filled with shops, banks, cafés and restaurants as the town grew. It later earned the nickname Paris of Java, a name that reflected its cafés, boutiques and cinema.

Art Deco buildings gave the street its later character. One of the clearest examples is a bank building of 1936 designed by Albert Aalbers. Walking Braga is easier if you look up, since the upper storeys of many of its buildings show the period detail that the shopfronts below often hide.

A short distance away, Jalan Asia Afrika runs parallel to the old carriage road. It was laid under the Dutch Governor-General Daendels as part of the great post road across Java, and it was renamed in honour of the 1955 conference. The avenue is where most of the grander hotels and public buildings stand, and it links the civic core with the older commercial streets. If you only have a day, walk Braga to Jalan Asia Afrika and finish at the conference buildings.

Halls with a 1955 story: the conference building and its museum

The building most closely tied to the city’s place in world history is Gedung Merdeka. It began in 1895 as the Sociëteit Concordia, a dance hall and social club for Bandung’s wealthy residents. It was rebuilt in 1926 in the Art Deco style by the architects Van Galen and C. P. Wolff Schoemaker. During the Japanese occupation it was renamed Dai Toa Kaikan and used as a cultural centre. On 17 August 1945, after the proclamation of independence, it became the headquarters for independence fighters. It was chosen as the venue for the 1955 Asian-African Conference, renovated in early 1955 and renamed Gedung Merdeka, which means Independence Building.

The conference is covered from two complementary angles. The Asian-African Conference Museum looks at the hall as a building and at the museum that was opened inside it in March 1980, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the conference. Museum Konferensi Asia Afrika looks at the 1955 summit itself and what was agreed there. Start with the building if you want the architecture and the history of the site, and with the summit if you want to understand the conference.

A courtroom, a railway and a campus: other civic colonial buildings

In 1930, the colonial court in Bandung, the Landraad, heard a case against three founders of the Indonesian National Party, Sukarno, Gatot Mangkupraja and Maskun Supriadinata. They were charged with trying to overthrow the colonial government. Sukarno’s defence statement, titled Indonesia Menggugat or Indonesia Accuses, was delivered in that courtroom and became one of the most famous speeches of the nationalist movement. The building is now known as Gedung Indonesia Menggugat. It was opened to the public as a heritage space in 2007. Go there for the speech and for the court’s history rather than for architecture, because the courtroom’s role matters more than its design.

The Bandung railway station opened on 17 May 1884, the same year the Batavia to Bandung line opened through Bogor and Cianjur. The line was built by the Dutch state railway company, the Staatsspoorwegen. The station was remodelled in an Art Deco style, and its south platform carries stained glass from that period. A newer building was later added beside the old one, so the station now has two building groups. For a visitor, the station is most useful as the place where the city’s rail links and its colonial architecture meet.

The most important architect of the colonial period in Bandung is Henri Maclaine Pont. Born in Meester Cornelis near Batavia in 1884, he studied civil engineering in Delft and built his reputation by combining Western construction with Javanese forms. His best-known Bandung work is the pair of halls at the Bandung Institute of Technology, which blend Western construction with Javanese and Sumatran roof forms.

Art Deco and the commercial city of the 1930s

Bandung’s Art Deco buildings are one of the most visible results of the colonial boom. They were put up in the 1920s and 1930s for shops, offices, banks, hotels and cinemas, and they tend to show streamlined curves, geometric decoration and long horizontal lines. The best way to see them is on foot in the streets around Braga and the avenue, where the architecture of the period still sits close together. The Dutch architect Albert Aalbers is closely linked with the later work, including the 1936 bank building on Braga and a late-1930s remodel of a hotel on Jalan Asia Afrika. Our Bandung Art Deco guide covers the buildings in more detail and tells you what to expect when you visit them.

A cathedral and a city that burned

The St Peter’s Cathedral on Jalan Merdeka is a neo-Gothic church designed by Wolff Schoemaker and built in the early 1920s. It replaced an earlier parish church that had opened in 1895, and the new building was planned after Bandung became a municipality in 1906. It is a good stop if you want to see a neo-Gothic church from the colonial period.

The city’s most dramatic event in the colonial period took place in March 1946. As Indonesian forces withdrew from the south of the city, the southern part of Bandung was deliberately set on fire, an event that became known as the Bandung Sea of Fire. The fires burned on 23 and 24 March after a British ultimatum that the area be cleared of armed forces. The Dutch took control of the city on 17 April 1946. A monument to the event was put up in 1981. The Sea of Fire is an event rather than a building, so it is best understood alongside the architecture around it.

Public squares and markets in the colonial city

Not every colonial site is a building with a plaque. The Alun-Alun Bandung square is the central open ground of the city, and it is the natural meeting point for anyone walking between the civic buildings and the shopping streets. Pasar Baru Bandung covers the market district and the trade that still takes place there. Tegallega Park is a large open park on the city’s southern side. These three places are described by what each one is used for and how it fits into the city’s daily life, rather than by its construction dates.

How to choose and plan a colonial heritage walk

If you have one day, pick one layer and do it properly. For government architecture, start at Gedung Sate and the field in front of it. For the 1955 story, take Gedung Merdeka and the 1955 summit, then walk to the courtroom. For streets and Art Deco, take Braga and Jalan Asia Afrika in one loop. For engineering and architecture, go to the institute’s halls, the work of Henri Maclaine Pont. For the railway, keep the station for the end of the day so you can compare the old building with the newer one.

Plan a walk that is short enough to be enjoyable. Gedung Sate, the field, the conference buildings and the main streets sit close enough to link on foot, but the railway station and the cathedral are separate stops, so plan the day around one area at a time. Wear comfortable shoes and carry water. Several sites are working buildings, so keep your visit quiet and tidy.

Practical notes for visitors

Expect that some buildings are open to the public only in part, and that others are working offices where you may view the exterior and the entrance but not the interior. Check the details for each place before you go, because a building’s status can change. Colonial heritage in Bandung is best approached with the ground-level view in mind. Look at the doorways, the window pattern and the roof lines, because they show the purpose of the building more clearly than a plaque does.

Finally, decide how deep you want to go. A short visit can be built around two or three sites, while a longer stay can take in the whole set of civic buildings, the streets and the 1955 venues. The links above lead to each place, and the Bandung hub gives the wider context for the city’s other sights, its food and its countryside.