National Archives Building

Located on busy Jalan Gajah Mada. It once housed the Dutch colonial Archives, and was originally built in the 18th century as residence of the Dutch East Indies Company’s (VOC) Governor General Reinier de Klerk. Today, however, it has become a museum which is open to the public and can be used for romantic gala dinners or wedding receptions in exclusive heritage setting.

When the site was about to be demolished, a group of Dutch businessmen founded the Stichting Cadeau Indonesia (Society for the Gift to Indonesia) to collect funds to restore the building as a museum to donate this to the Indonesian government on the country’s 50th Independence Day in 1995. Restoration was however, completed only in 1998.

The main red brick bulding has two floors with a high roof. It has a wide ground floor. Its main door is beautifully carved and has holes for ventilation. Here was the main drawing room of the governor general. Today there are still a collection of antique furniture and an arsenal of guns.

On the ground floor can still be seen ceramic tiles similar to those found in the Palace of the Kasepuhan in Cirebon, depicting stories from the Bible. A staircase leads to the private quarters on the upper floor where are offices and a dining room (where Hillary Clinton was hosted a dinner during one of her visits to Jakarta). Here one can see old maps of Batavia, and the bedroom of Governor General Reinier de Klerk.

In 2001 the National Archives museum received the UNESCO Award of Excellence 2001