Published on June 6, 2014
Bank of Indonesia officially established its Bandung Office building, housing the Head Office Area VI (in charge of West Java and Banten Provinces), as Bank Indonesia Memorabilia and Cultural Reserve on 26th May 2014. This is the second building of the Indonesian Central Bank that was designated historic site following the Museum of Bank Indonesia located at the Old Batavia complex in Jakarta.
The status as Heritage Conservation Site assigned to the building by the City of Bandung by Decree No.19 attachment No.18, dated 7 August 2009.
“There is a public drive by the Mayor of Bandung, capital of the province of West Java, to convert historical buildings into cultural enclaves; this concept spurred us to designate our Bandung head office as Cultural Reserve. In time, the building will not only serve as heritage site but we plan to further develop this into a full scale museum. With the current collection that we own, we can as yet only call it a semi-museum” explained Head of Bank Indonesia Area VI Office, Dian Ediana Rae, as reported by kompas.com.
Dian also explained that Bank Indonesia has conducted renovations and gathered collections since February 2013.
Located at Jalan.Braga, in the heart of the mountain city of Bandung, the Building was originally the 15th office of De Javasche Bank (DJB). It was constructed by the Dutch Colonial Government to anticipate the widespread impact of the Boer War in South Africa that occurred 1899-1902. Designed by Architects Hulswit, Fermont, and Edward Cuypers, the building took three years to complete from 1915 to 1918.
“We will maintain the building’s original construction and use it as memorabilia site to display a variety of collections that relate to the history of Bank of Indonesia. These include information panels, numismatic and non-numismatic collections, and many other items of historic significance” said Dian.
Since 50 percent of the building is still used to accommodate activities of Bank Indonesia, the semi-museum is not yet entirely open to the public.”For the time being, those who wish to visit and observe the memorabilia must make arrangements and reservations in advance” added Dian. However, eventually the cultural reserve will be completely open for public as a tourist destination.
Bandung is famous for its well preserved art-deco heritage buildings like the Savoy Homann Hotel, Villa Isola, Gedung Sate – the Governor’s Office, Gedung Merdeka, that houses the Asian-African Museum, and many others.
Source: kompas.com
