HISTORICAL PLACE "LAWANG SEWU"

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

HISTORICAL PLACES

LAWANG SEWU

 

 Lawang Sewu ("Thousand Doors") is a landmark in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia, built as the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company. The colonial era building is famous as a haunted house, though the Semarang city government has attempted to rebrand it.

The complex consists of several buildings, two main ones named A and B and two smaller ones named C and D, on Pemuda Street. A building faces the Tugu Muda roundabout. building A features large stained-glass windows and a grand staircase in the center. There was also once a tunnel connecting A building to several other sites in the city

The B building is located behind A building. It is three stories in height, consisting of offices and a ballroom. The building also has a basement floor that is kept partially flooded to serve to cool the building through evaporation.

In front of A building stands a monument to five employees killed during the Indonesian War of Independence.

Lawang Sewu was designed by Cosman Citroen. It was designed in New Indies Style, an academically-accepted term for Dutch Rationalism in the Indies.

Construction began in 1904 with A building, which was completed in 1907. The rest of the complex was finished in 1919. it was initially used by the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij, the first railway company in the Dutch East Indies.

 

This is the basement of B building, said to be haunted by ghosts. Lawang Sewu is said to be haunted, with many tourists visiting to see the ghosts. Among the ghosts reported to inhabit the establishment are a Dutchwoman who committed suicide inside and a man with a ball and chain wrapped around his leg.  In late 2013 the Semarang city government announced plans to eliminate the building's "spooky image" in order to attract more visitors. This was to encompass a reimagining of the site as a place for social and cultural activities, supported by renovations of the building.