Saturday, August 16, 2008

Bandung Grand Mosque

In 1809, Louis Napoleon, the ruler of the Netherlands and its colonies, ordered the Dutch Indies Governor H.W. Daendels to improve Java's defenses against the threat of the English, who occupied the nearby Malay peninsula. Daendels responded by building the Great Post Road (Postweg), which stretched about 1000 km between the west and east costs of Java. As much of the north coast was impassable swamp and marsh at the time, the road was diverted through Bandung along what is now Jalan Asia-Afrika.

Daendels liked Bandung's strategic location so much that he ordered the capital to be moved there. Military barracks were built and Bupati Wiranatakusumah II, the chief administrator of that area, built his dalem (palace), Masjid Agung (the Grand Mosque) and pendopo (meeting place) in the classical Javan alun-alun (city square) stule near a pair of holy city wells (Sumur Bandung) and facing the mystical mountain of Tangkuban Perahu.

Bandung Grand Mosque has been renovated 7 times, click this link if you want to see how Grand Mosque looked like before this age.

Source: wikipedia

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