.: Keraton Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Palace)

2.12.15

Keraton Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Palace)

Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat is a palace complex of the royal city of Yogyakarta. Keraton is living quarter of the royal family in the palace. The palace is the main seat Sultan of Yogyakarta and his family. It serves as a cultural center for the Javanese people and contains a museum that displays the sultanate's artifacts.

The palace was built according to Javanese Philosophy and is shrouded by mysticism. The spatial arrangement of the palace, including the cityscape of the old city of Yogyakarta, including its architecture, direction of buildings, and objects all belongs to the mythological value and belief system of the Javanese. The main street of the old city forms a straight line from Tugu Yogyakarta, Kraton, Mount Merapi to Krapyak Hunting House. The layout mean "the origin of human beings and their last purposes" (Javanese: sangkan paraning dumadi).

Yogyakarta Palace was built by Prince Mangkubumi in 1755-1756 several months after the signing of the Treaty of Giyanti between Prince Mangkubumi of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono of Surakarta and Dutch East India Company. A Banyan Forest was chosen as the site of the palace due to its location between two rivers which were considered good protection from possible flooding.

On 20 June 1812, Stamford Raffles led a 1,200-strong British force to attack the walled royal city. The Javanese although outnumber the invader, wasn't prepared for the attack and was taken back by the event. In one day the city of Yogyakarta fell, with the royal palace sacked and burned. The total loot from the palace valued £15,000 in gold, jewels and currency (which valued £500,000 today). The event was the first time an attack has been carried out into a court in Java and as a result the sultanate was completely subjugated to colonial authority.

Most of the current palace building within the compound was built by Sultan Hamengkubuwono VIII who reign from 1921 to 1939. It suffered an earthquake in 1876 and 2006, and was subsequently rebuilt after the devastation.