A Thousand Doors - Recommended Tourist Attractions in Semarang that You Must Visit

Welcome to Steemit!

This is a very iconic tourist spot in Semarang. Talking about Semarang tourism, of course you have to mention Lawang Sewu ! The former head office of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company, this building was also used as the office of the Republic of Indonesia Railways Office and the Office of the Regional Military Command Infrastructure Agency.
Now, Lawang Sewu has been revitalized and converted into a museum and tourist spot. Lawang Sewu is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Semarang, and is famous for its many doors, so people call it Lawang Sewu, aka the Thousand Doors. It is said that there are not even a thousand doors in total, you can see for yourself when you go there!
Lawang Sewu is located on Jalan Pemuda, not far from Simpang Lima which is considered the center of the city of Semarang. If it's your first time visiting Semarang, visiting Lawang Sewu is obligatory.

Lawang Sewu ( Dutch : Het administratiegebouw van de Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg-Maatschappij, NV te Samarang ) ( Javanese: ꧋ꦭꦮꦁꦱꦺꦮꦸ meaning Thousand Doors) is an office building located across from Tugu Muda , Semarang City , Central Java , Indonesia, which was built as the head office of the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS). This building has the status of an Indonesian Railway asset(KAI) because it was the fruit of the seizure of the NIS by the Republic of Indonesia Railways Service (DKARI) during the War of Independence. Currently the building is used as a museum and gallery of railroad history by the Central Unit for Preservation and Architectural Design and KAI Wisata.

Etymology
The original name of Lawang Sewu is the building's nickname in Javanese which means "(a building with) a thousand doors".The design of the building is very roomy, and has about 1,000 windows so tall and large that they are mistaken for "doors". here are only 429 doors in the building.

Layout
Large windows are often found in Dutch buildings in Indonesia. Many buildings, houses or other structures at that time had windows of a similar size. This was done to adapt to the humid and hot climate in Indonesia. With this many windows, more air will enter and make it cold. that functions as a drain. In front of the building stands Tugu Muda to commemorate the Five Days Battle .

History
Lawang Sewu was designed by Cosman Citroen , from a firm formed by senior architects JF Klinkhamer and BJ Ouëndag . The building was designed in the New Indies Style , the academically accepted term for Dutch Rationalism in the Indies. Similar to Dutch Rationalism, the style was the result of efforts to develop new solutions to integrate traditional precedents (classicism) with new technological possibilities. It can be described as a transitional style between Traditionalist and Modernist and influenced by Berlage designs.

Construction began in 1904 with building A being completed in 1907. The remainder was completed in 1919. [8] It was originally used by the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij , the first railway company in the Dutch East Indies.

After Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in 1942, Japanese troops took over Lawang Sewu. The basement of building B was turned into a prison with executions carried out inside. [8] When Semarang was recaptured by the Dutch in the battle for Semarang in October 1945, Dutch troops used the tunnel leading to building A to sneak into the city. A battle ensued with many Indonesian fighters killed. Five employees who worked there also died.

After the war, Indonesian soldiers took over the complex. The building was then operated by the Indonesian Railways Service (DKARI). In 1992 the building was designated as a cultural heritage.

Preservation
In 2009, the Lawang Sewu complex was in a deplorable state. Simon Marcus Gower, in his column for The Jakarta Post , wrote that the building is "dark and unkempt. The white walls are black with pollution and neglect. The walls are peeling and covered with vandal graffiti. Moss has grown on most of the buildings and rats become a resident of the cracks of the building.

This building will undergo renovation in the future in order to increase its tourist attraction. Governor of Central Java, Bibit Waluyo, mobilized TNI soldiers to assist with the renovations; especially on the outside of the building. However, local residents were disappointed with the results of the renovation because they considered it lost its authenticity.

On July 5, 2011 the building was inaugurated by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono . However, at that time only building B could be visited. [8] He hopes that this inauguration will be the main attraction in the success of the Central Java government's tourism program in 2013.

Building B is planned to be used as offices, a food court and a fitness center . In late 2013, the Municipal Government of Semarang announced plans to remove the building's "spooky image" to attract more visitors. This is done by rearranging the area for social and cultural activities, along with the continued renovation of buildings. At that time, Lawang Sewu attracted an average of 1,000 visitors daily.

Urban legend
Lawang Sewu is known to be very haunted because its basement was used as a place of torture by Japanese soldiers. Many tourists enter the room solely to see ghosts. Among the ghosts reported to inhabit the place are a Dutch Noni who committed suicide inside as well as sightings of a "headless ghost", the Kuntilanak's residence on the ground floor of B building, and Pocong in the squatting prison's torture chamber.

In 2007, a horror film entitled Lawang Sewu: Dendam Kuntilanak was released based on this urban legend. The film tells the story of a group of high school students from Jakarta who become trapped in Lawang Sewu after having to urinate several times and features the ghost of a Dutch noni, a man who moves with a chain ball weighing on his leg, and the figure of a kuntilanak .