Also known as the Fatahillah Museum in the Old Batavia district, the Museum follows the history of Jakarta. Originally built in 1707 as the Stadhuis, or the Municipal Hall of Batavia, the building now houses the history of the city of Jakarta from prehistoric times until today, in metals, textiles, stones, crystal, ceramics, paperand bone. Here is the “Jagur” cannon, believed to enhance fertility, the axe used for beheading of criminals, paintings of consecutive Dutch Governor Generals from 1602 – 1942.
Here there also original antique colonial furniture once used by the colonial powers. The Museum has a dark and scary dungeon that was once a prison, where at one time Indonesia’s National Hero, Diponegoro, was imprisoned and chained.