Back in the middle of the 17 e century, Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta was one of the hottest addresses in Batavia. He was a great, spacious boulevard beloved settlers who liked to reproduce their European idyll in the tropics. Today the road at first glance is as indefinable as many others in Jakarta, but it has a claim to fame. Geraja Sion is the oldest operating church in the city. Also known as the Portuguese Church of Zion Geraja means reflects the rich history of cosmopolitan Jakarta.
The road on which he perhaps been found for the 17 e century elite, but the Portuguese Church catering to a totally different clientele. Eastern influence Portugal, never particularly strong, faded, but his tongue lingered a hybrid of freed slaves, prisoners and the descendants of mixed relationships. Never fully accepted by the colonial society of these people Bengali, Gujarati and Malays were granted Portuguese names on the granting of their "freedom" and left on their own to make their way in the world.
They were allowed to worship provided they converted from Catholicism to Protestantism and as long as they do not use the Dutch. Most of these people could not afford to live in the walls of the city at the time, they were forced to live "outside the walls." With Jakarta Fort built just "outside" the walls along what is now Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta many of these foreigners have found work in its walls and in the same year, the strong open, cemetery was dedicated.
The cemetery has become a focal point for the poor who lived in the area and in 1676 a hut was added to the land so some basic worship could be performed. The bell used to call people to the service is always held in the Geraja Sion to date. A rare antiquity in smog today filled the streets of North Jakartan. Work began on the church itself in 1693 and in a few years, the first service was held in Low German based on the first book of Kings.
The land around the church has now been swallowed up by developers and road builders and many people who used the church as a focal point of their lives are now long forgotten. A walk among the graves may briefly in the first days, but nothing in our experience can help us understand a year like 170 when 2,381 burials were recorded.
children of today's schools play basketball in front of the main entrance, the basket just below the aging body that leads the faithful during the services. A kindly guardian lends itself to show the casual visitor around the historic place of worship, the man himself as much interest as the church.
A puny little man, he worked at the church for the better part of a quarter century since his arrival in Jakarta from Cirebon. He finds nothing strange in the fact that he, a Muslim should show people around a church. A Muslim Sundanese amid a sea of Chinese Christians united in the Portuguese Church.
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