Old Semarang City: the sustainability of traditional city patterns in Java

Abstract

Research on old city patterns in the world has become an area for archeologists. Historians and archeologists in Java, Indonesia, discovered a city center with a North-South axis, alun-alun (open space) surrounding by the government and religious building. This concept continued from the Majapahit Kingdom (12–15 centuries) to the Islamic Sultanate (15th century) and stopped in the Islamic Mataram Sultanate (17th century). However, Semarang City, as a city subordinate to the Islamic sultanate, has the same city center pattern, but the North-South axis is blurred. This research used data from several old maps, sketch drawings, photographs, and traditional city patterns in Java to find out the whole model of old Semarang City. Semarang also had a North-South axis that was no longer visible due to constructing the great pos road, railroad line, and city development. The sustainability of traditional city patterns in Java has not stopped in Mataram Islam sultanate city. This pattern also applied to the city as a sub-ordinate Islamic sultanate. The sustainability of the urban pattern, starting from the influencing power, shifted to the spreading of religion. The traditional city pattern can be a reference in city design based on the city’s history.

Keywords

• historical city
• sustainability in city patterns
• java
• majapahit-dutch era
• semarang’s north-south axis