Lawang Sewu, which translates to 'Thousand Doors,' is an iconic landmark located in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. It was built as the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company during the colonial era. Constructed in 1904 and completed in 1907, this building is renowned for its architectural beauty, featuring numerous doors and windows that embellish the construction, hence the name. The edifice showcases a blend of Dutch and local Javanese architectural styles, with its high ceilings, spacious corridors, and large windows promoting natural ventilation, essential in the tropical climate of Indonesia. During Worldaget War II, the Japanese occupied Indonesia and used Lawang Sewu as a prison, which later led to its reputation as a haunted site with numerous ghost stories and myths swirling around it. Today, it is a popular tourist destination for its historical value and supposedly paranormal activities. Lawang Sewu has been restored and preserved as a cultural heritage site, and now hosts museum exhibits and guided tours that narrate its historical past.
We arrived when it was already closed, so we could only visit the building from the outside. It used to be the former Dutch railway headquarters. It's an impressive and spectacular building.
wendk2018
Wrote on 14th Oct, 2023
Illuminating Indonesia’s dark past.
Beautiful building with a very dark and heavy past. Built in the early 1900’s during Dutch occupation, it was initially used as an office building for the first railroad company in the Dutch East Indi..
This is a museum of railway history, but the star of the show is the building itself with its fine proportions, its stained glass window, its wood beamed ceilings and its colonnades. The exhibits are ..
I thought I better go in here and have a look around. It's a lovely old railway office building. It's not that exciting as I had no information about the place I was just walking around taking photo..
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