Lawang Sewu

Old colonial buildings

What we say:

Lawang Sewu is a series of Dutch colonial buildings built for the administrators of the railways of the Dutch East Indies and now owned by Indonesian Railways.

Construction commenced in 1904 on the large main building with features such as high ceilings, large windows and many doors – Lawang Sewu meaning "thousand doors" in Javanese.

After the Japanese invasion during the Second World War, the Japanese used these buildings among other things for rape and torture and to this day may local people believe the place is inhabited by unhappy spirits.

The complex itself is rather disappointing and many sections which have been renovated look shabby and in need of maintenance. In fact, the whole complex disappoints on every level with access to the main building being blocked over the course of 2011 and 2012 due to an ongoing dispute about access between government-owned Indonesian Railways and the Semarang government.

For those that love colonial architecture, this place is worth a visit. For everyone else, it really is just a time filler .

More details

Cnr of Jalan Pemuda and Jalan Pandanaran

Travelfish reader reviews

There have been no reviews written by Travelfish readers so far.
Why don't you start the ball rolling?

Have your say

Review title

Snappiness encouraged ;-)

When did you visit here?

This gives your review a bit of context - especially if you were last visited in 1932.

Your review

(Remotely sensible, non-ranting comments are much appreciated. If you don't like somewhere, please explain why -- it's all far more helpful for others that way.) Serial ranters, loons and spammers will be banished!
And please, no self-promotional URLs -- that's what your signature field is for.

So how does it rate?

On a scale of one to ten (with 10 being outstanding and 1 being bloody awful) how would you rate here?
Rating (out of 10):

Please note reviews are now pre moderated. Not all reviews will be published and submissions may be edited for clarity, typos and style before they appear. Ranting tirades, spam and anything else that really belongs somewhere else won't make the cut. If you want to rant, go to Thorntree.

Please login and refresh this screen before writing your review -- thanks!