The crown prince of Yogya, the later Hamengku Buwono II, ordered the construction of a massive wall and a canal around the palace complex in 1785. It was constructed with sand andlimestont, and measured 5 x 4 metres. Stories go that the sultan could drive over it while inspecting.
The remains of the wall still surround the old part of the city, which is still known as
benteng, or fortress. It's a very fascinating quarter with a surface of approximately 1 square km, which can be watched on foot easily. The small streets are decorated with white-painted gates, which give access to spaceous houses of aristocratic families. The houses are built in the same style as the palace. The climax is a visit to the remains of the royal court
Taman Sari.
At the four corners of the original wal were four solid bastions with cannons; only one of the bastions has survived the years. Five
plenkung ( arched gates ) gave access to the city, by bridges over the canal. Thick wooden doors in the gates were opened daily, but closed at 8 in the evening, at a signal of the kraton.
The best kept is the southern gate
Nirbaya or
Gading. At both sides steps lead to wooden towers, from which during the Ramadhan sirens mark the daily start and end of the fasting. The sultan is not allowed to leave the kraton through the southern gate, except when he has died, and his body is taken to the
Imogiri graveyard.
The northern square
The great northern lawn,
alun-alun lor excisted from black sand solely until 1928. Walking was forbidden, and passers-by had to do it without shoes and sunshade; only the sultan was allowed to wear shoes in the area and to have a sunshade.
The square is surrounded by 62 waringin-trees. The six on the square all have a name, the two in the centre are sacred. In the southeastern corner, a cage van be found, where tigers were held, which had to fight against buffalo's. Most of the time, the tiger lost.
Nowadays the
alun-alun serves as a soccer-field; schools practise gymnastica and young kids play with their kites. At night, the stalls at the northern side sell
martabak, a faulded pancake with a stuffing of egg and meat, fried in oil. At the square more food is available.
At the western side of the square is the Big Mosque (
Mesjid Ageng or
Mesjid Besar ), which was built in 1773 on the order of sultan Hamengku Buwono I. At the top of the pyramid-shaped roof is a Indo-Jawanese-linga-shaped top. The big, open room of prayer is very simple. The small buidings at both sides of the square are for playing gamelan during Sekaten.
Museum Sono Budoyo
At the northwestern side of the square is
Museum Sono Budoyo. It was founded by the Jawa Institute, in which mostly Dutch were members. The main building is built in traditional Jawanese style. In the very first building are two gamelans; one from Cirebon, and the other from the kraton in Yogya. A path leads you to the museum, which is only opened in the morning.
The first room is the
pasareyan ( bridal room ), the traditional centre of the Jawanese house, dedicated to
Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice and fertility. In front of the bridal bed are two
loro blony, painted dolls of the bride and the groom. Furthermore the museum contains wayang-puppets and masks from Jawa, Pasundan, Bali and Madura, a nice collection of Indo-Jawanese bronze temple-statues, a woodcarved panel from djatiwood from Japara and pieces of Balinese woodcarvings. Recent expansions are a room for special shows and the library.
The water castle
South of the kraton is the remarkable
^Taman Sari-complex. In the Dutch time it was also known as the Watercastly, named like that because of it's, already ramshacle, structure that once stood in the centre of an artifical lake. Walk straight to the west when you leave the kraton, and turn right at Jalan Ngasem. Turn left again, beyond the Ngasem market, and follow the road, turning right slightly.
In 1758 Hamengku Buwono I started the construction of this complex. The main building, built from masonry and two storey's was built on a low island in an artificial lake. Lowered wter basins were connected by underwater hallways. There were underground cells for meditation and 18 gardens with flowers, vegetables and fruit trees.
Taman Sari means fragant gardens. The source that fed the waterstructures was
Umbul Pacetokan, which could have been used as a bathing place for Penembahan Senopati, the founder of the later Mataram principalty, in 1589. Construction master of the watercastle was R.T. Mangundipuroo, lord of Madiun; main supervisor was K.P.H. Notokusomo, the later Paku Alam I.
The nowadays gate is at the end of a long, wide lane, which used to be planted with fruit trees. At the left is a small mosque. However it was built in the traditional Jawanese pendopo-style, the mosque only contains one pillar, instead of the usual four. The stone block on which the pillar rests, originates from the ruines of the earlier meeting hall of
Kerta, the 17th century palace of sultan Agung.
Two stone
naga-snakes mark the arched entrance. Guides are very welcome in this maze, but the historical knowledge is small most of the times. Once inside you will enter garden with eight corners with four buildings, in which the sultan and his wifes spent their time. A gate and a stairway give access to a walled court with three bassins with water, where the royal family bathed. Two big bassins, for the sultans wifes, were separated by a tower from the small bassin. From his window, the sultan could have a look over his wifes.
The third bath, at the other side of the tower, was for the sultan only and his favorite wife. It is fed by the
Umbul Pacetokan course. North of the female bathing place is the tearoom, probably the place where the drinks were prepared.
At the western side, a stairs brings you to a second court garden with eight corners, which borders to the
Gapura Agung, the impressive 'Big Gate'. It's decorated with a relief and shows a bird taking pollen from a flower. This is a chronogram which represents the Jawanese year 1691 ( AD 1765 ), the year in which
Taman Sari was completed.
Big pots, once with flowers and little fruit trees, surround the court. A wide terrace on the second floor of the gate gives a view over a densely populated part of the city. it's hard to imagint that this once was the main entrance of the complex.
Royal bedrooms
A small path leads from the court through a quiet suburb to a dark, U-shaped, complex, the
Pasaerean Dalem Ledoksari. This are the sleeping rooms of the sultan. They have a stark similarity with a traditional Chinese landhouse. Below the sleeping places in the central room, water used to run. This place is named sacred and nowadays it serves as a meditation room; flowers are still spread. The population believes that a secret tunnel connects witht the palace, or even the sea at the south. Once, the terrain included a kitchen, a tailor, a storage room and two bassins for servants and a yard with spice trees and a garden for vegetables. This all has been removed in the favour of the
kampung.
The 'arched well'
The centre of the
Taman Sari, the place where once an artificial lake could be found, is reached by walking back to the central court, and to walk towards the north beyond that. The lake got it's water from the river
Winogo. In the centre is a ruin of a big house. A dark stairs, hard to find in the rubble, takes you to a tunnel, which used to be under water, this takes you to the most wonderfull creations of the
Taman Sari, the arched well.
The tunnel ends in an atrium without a roof, surrounded by two storeys of galleries. The tunnel used to run to the western end of the lake, but that part is collapsed. The bottom is formed by a small pond, probably an old source. Four stairs bring you to a small platform, which in fact hovers over the old source. From here a stairs brings you to the top gallery, which gives you a view over the atrium. The windows of the gallery used to be above the water level in the old days, and gave a nice view over the lake.
Small alcoves at the western side of the gallery seem to the use of the building as s mosque. People believe gamelan was played on the lower gallery, for guiding the dancers, who danced at the upper gallery. There are also signs that point at some Hinduist influences. Hemengku Buwono I unified himself with the god Wisnu, who's image is frequently placed above a source.
The most simple explanation is that the building was designed as a meditation room. It would be some kind of copy of the undersea palace of goddess
Ratu Kidul, the goddess of the South Sea, from which the ruler of Mataram should have got it's special powers. Most likely it even is the room where the sultan renewed the marritial bands with the goddess.
The 'Portuguese' fortress
The island in the centre of the late, with the imposant house
Gedung Kenongo, once was reachable through tunnels. Supposed is that the house was designed by a Portuguese constructor from Batavia. The building indeed shows remarkable European influences. Possibly the design was lent from pictures of Dutch landhouses. The stairs are collapsed, but it's still possible to climb upwards to enjoy the view over the rooms and the dinning room on the second floor, and to enjoy the view over the entire area.
The tunnels which connected the house with the gardens, were ventilated and lighted by a number of small towers, which rose above the surface of the lake. One of the tunnels was restaurated; east of it is one of the three places where the royal vessel could moor. Who walks due south at the end of the restaurated tunnel will end at the starting point of the journey, the entrance at the eastern side.
However
Taman Sari was built as a rehabilitation place, it also shows signs of a fortress. The construction lasted for eleven yeras. Shortly after the death of Hemengku Buwono I it was abandoned, mainly because the underwater structures were always in desparate need of maintainance. The gardens were neglected and the buildings were damaged during the Jawa War ( 1825-1830 ) and the earthquake of 1867.
During the restauration, which started in 1970, only the central bassins were reconstructed completely. It is said that the current state of the
Pasarean and the
Sumur Gumuling is the best at this moment, green and ramshackle. However the short glory and the current situation of the complex
Taman Sari still is an honour to power of imagination and ingenuity of it's creator, Hemengku Buwono I.
Batik painters
Nowadays hundreds of families live in the ruins of the watercastle. The big flow of tourists brought many to the idea to sell batik paintings. Design and style of the products is very fashionable. Where in the early days scenereies from Ramayana and the vague landscape ruled, nowadays all kinds of animalsm, 'primitive' portraits and wilde abstracs creations are sold. The most creative and succesfull artists leave the area behind to start an art studio somewhere else in the city. Still, many stay in the cooperation which still makes some of the most sold creations. The works are not very original, but there are always some nice creations to be found. A good look and bargaining is most important.
At the northen side of the watercastle and the painters colony is the big
Ngasem-market. Except the normal daily market it also has an animal market where champion-pigeons sometimes can bring in over US$ 50,000 ! Furthermore there are other pigeons sold, as well as a big variety of other birds and animals. At the border of the market the very easy bamboo cages are also sold.
The southern square
The southern
alun-alun of the kratoin, just east of
Taman Sari, forms a mirror image os the Northern square, but it's a little smaller, and surrounded by fruit trees. On the square are four
waringin-trees; two in the centre of the square and two near the southern gate. The current lawn used to be a place for military excersitions and tiger fights, but these images defenately belong to the history. On the lawn now sports and singing-bird-contests take place. The royal elephants traded their stables at the western side of the square for the zoo.
At the northern side of the square is pavilion
Sasono Hinggil Dwi Abad. It was built in 1955 on the place of the ruins of
Siti Hinggikl, to celebrate the 200th birthday of the kraton. Here, the preparations for the monthly wayang-kilut show are held and the mass on Christmas Eve, where the gamelan takes the place of the organ.
Who is interested in unexplainable appearances shoud try to cross the square from north to south, through the central
waringins-trees; blinded and in the dark of cours. People who should know about it, tell that people are almost forced to the left or the right when nearing the two trees. The
waringin-trees have a good reputation as defenders of the terrain.
In the part of the old city east of the kraton used to be houses, gardens and a mosque (
Mesjid Solo ), of the prince, the later Hamengku Buwono II, and his son prince Mangkurat. The only structure that still reminds of that period is the small mosque from 1784, which is still in use.
Scattered around the western part of the old city are smaller courts, which used to belong to princes. The right of establishment belonged to members of the royal family only. Since the rules were eased, residents of the area, more students and descendants from the servants lived there. Foreigners are officially still not allowed to live in the old part of the city.
Except the everywhere available batik, the area around Taman Sari is also known for it's big stores, specialized in traditional clothing and dancing costumes. 
