The Kraton Kasepuhan is the oldest kraton (sultan's palace) in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n city of

Cirebon Cirebon (, formerly rendered Cheribon or Chirebon in English) is a port city on the northern coast of the Indonesian island of Java. It is the only coastal city of West Java, located about 40 km west of the provincial border with Central J ...

. It is the residence of the Sultan of Kasepuhan and the royal palace of the Sultanate of Cirebon.

History

It was built in 1447 and its architecture and interior are a blend of Sundanese, Javanese,

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, Chinese, and Dutch styles. While the sultan still lives in the palace, several main sections are open to the public. Inside is a pavilion with white-washed walls dotted with blue-and-white

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

tiles, a marble floor, and a ceiling hung with French chandeliers. The legacy of

Majapahit Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island o ...

is preserved in its small '' pendopo'' on soft carved brick bases. The carvings on the ''pendopo'' columns are 1940s copies of the ancient originals. An innovation is the use of brackets branching out from the columns. The main building features unusually tall pyramidal column bases. The ornament on the double braces of this building's ''pendopo'' '' tumpang sari'' ceiling is picked out in gilt. Another unusual feature in the eclectic complex: is the plaster and masonry columns feature decoration that resembles

reeding Reeding or milling is a technique wherein a number of narrow ridges called "reeds" are carved or milled into a surface with a Castaing machine. Numismatics In numismatics, reeded edges are often referred to as "ridged" or "grooved" (American ...

. Like other old sites around Cirebon, ceramics in walls are common here, although their use in the Kraton is more restrained.Schoppert, P., Damais, S., ''Java Style'', 1997, Didier Millet, Paris, p. 54, The palace also has a somewhat neglected small museum with a restricted display of ''

wayang ( , ) is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. The term refers both to the show as a whole and the puppet in particular. Performances of wayang puppet theatre are accompanied by a ''gamel ...

'', ''

kris The kris or is a Javanese culture, Javanese asymmetrical dagger with a distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade, although ma ...

'',

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

, furniture, Portuguese armour, and ancient royal clothes. In a separate nearby building the very elaborate ''Kereta Singabarong'', a 17th-century gilded coach, may be seen along with a modern duplicate carriage used on official occasions.

History

See also

References

Further reading