Maritime Museum (Indonesia)

History and the building

The Maritime Museum was installed in former Dutch East India Company warehouses. The warehouses were built beside the mouth of the Ciliwung River, the main river of Jakarta. The warehouses are divided into two parts: the Westzijdsche Pakhuizen or "warehouses of the west bank" (constructed from 1652–1771) and the Oostzijdsche Pakhuizen or "warehouses of the east bank". The west warehouse consists of four building units, three of which are now used for the museum. These were formerly used to store spices e.g. nutmeg and pepper. Also, coffee, tea, and cloth were stored here before being shipped to various ports in Asia and Europe.

Some of the warehouses were rebuilt at the end of the 17th century to create more space between the city wall and the warehouses. Different dates on stones appear above some doors of the museum which probably refer to the years when repairs, extensions, or additions to the warehouses were executed.

Between the warehouses and the city wall in front of the museum, the Company kept supplies of copper and tin. These metals were protected against rain by a wooden gallery attached to the front of the godowns. This broad gallery was also used by guards on patrol because the path on the city wall in front of it was rather narrow. The wooden gallery was attached to the second floor of the warehouses facing the waterfront but has long since been taken away. The big iron hooks which once supported the gallery can still be seen.

The remaining city wall in front of the Maritime Museum onwards to the bastion Zeeburg and a bit further west is all that is left of the wall that once surrounded Batavia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Only Zeeburg and Culemborg remain out of the twenty-three bastions from that period. The Menara Syahbandar (also known as de Uitkijk), situated about 50 meters from the Maritime Museum, is the former watch tower that was built on the remains of the old bastion Culemborg. The watch tower acted as a signal box and observation post since 1839 over the roads of Batavia. Before 1839, the signals with the ships were exchanged from the flagpole at the old VOC-shipyard situated straight behind the watchtower. The tower lost part of its function after 1886 when the new harbor of Tanjung Priok was opened.

During the Japanese occupation, the warehouses were used as logistics storage for the Japanese army. After Indonesian independence, it was used as a warehouse for PLN and PTT. In 1976, the building was declared a cultural property. The building was inaugurated as a museum displaying the maritime history of Indonesia on July 7, 1977.