Two places,
one old town.

Kebon Kopi inscription, 5th century CE: the Tarumanegara footprint

Kota Tua was not the first permanent settlement in this river estuary. 1,800 m southeast of Taman Fatahillah, on the banks of Ci Liwung (today Kali Ciliwung), the Kebon Kopi Inscription was discovered during 1893–1894 excavations by Dutch East Indies archaeologist J. Ph. Vogel. Written in Pallava script and Old Sanskrit, dated to Tarumanegara yuga 22 (per the Wangsakerta Chronicle), it reads: "Purnawarman, the valiant warrior king, has dug this river within 21 days for the prosperity of the world."

The inscription confirms the Ci Liwung riverbank region—now mostly buried beneath modern Jakarta construction—already fell within the sphere of the Tarumanegara Kingdom, one of the oldest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in West Java. It is on permanent display in the Ground Floor Archaeology Gallery of Jakarta History Museum (Reg. No. MSJ / TAR / 003).

Fadhilah Khan (Sunan Gunung Jati): the person behind the name

Fatahillah is not a birth name. According to the Babad Banten chronicle by Prince Wangsakerta of Cirebon (1720), the man behind it is Fadhilah Khan bin Maulana Ismail (1448/89 Saka – 1570/1494 Saka). Local Betawi tradition places his birth in Pajajaran, while the Chinese-Malay Hikayat Sam Po (San Po Chronicle) variant traces his descent to Hadhrami Arab navigators settled in Cirebon. He rose to military commander of the Cirebon Sultanate; a phenomenon called name conflation between teacher and disciple caused the title "Fatahillah" to be applied interchangeably between Fadhilah Khan and his teacher Sunan Gunung Jati—a common pattern in Javanese Islamisation narratives.

The silver-hilted sword carried during the Sunda Kelapa capture—98 cm, straight Javanese blade, teak handle carved with the Arabic kaligrafi La ilaha illallah—is preserved in the Jayakarta Room (Reg. No. MSJ / JAY / 011). It has been on extended loan from the Banten Sultanate since 1982; loan renewal is contracted for 2032 under a DKI–Banten Royal Foundation cooperation agreement.

Sunda Kelapa Treaty (1522) & Luso-Sunda alliance: why Fatahillah sailed

The 22 June 1527 capture of Sunda Kelapa by Fatahillah was no isolated raid. Five years earlier, on 21 August 1522, King Prabu Surawisesa of Sunda (Pajajaran, reign 1512–1535) signed a trade treaty with Henrique Leme, envoy of the Kingdom of Portugal at Malacca. Known as the Luso-Sundanese Pact, it granted Portugal a Sunda pepper-trade monopoly and the right to build a fortress at the Ponta da Cidade do Sunda Kelapa (today inside the old Sunda Kelapa Harbour grounds). A copy is preserved at Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon (ANTT code: Chancelaria de D. João III, Maço 12, Doc. 78), published in Indonesian in 1984 by Prof. Dr. Uka Tjandrasasmita (LP3ES).

The Cirebon Sultanate, allied with the Demak Sultanate of Central Java (375 sailing vessels, 12,000 troops), interpreted this alliance as a fitnah (sociopolitical threat) to the West Java Islamisation campaign. Fatahillah commanded the fleet; local legend records an out-of-season northwest monsoon wind (per Hikayat Cirebon, Serat Babad Cerbon MS Jakarta KBG 207) that trapped the Portuguese reinforcement fleet inside Sunda Strait, delaying relief by 21 days.

Ontel: op wiel wheels, mouth to mouth since 1947

The ontel bicycle (from Dutch op wiel, "on wheel") is more than rental transport. This narrative is edited from community interviews with 14 ontel operators conducted by the Universitas Indonesia Department of Architecture research team in 2018 (internal document: Kota Tua Ontel Ethnography Research Report, 2018, pp. 78–113).

"I started ontel in 1972, age 16. That ontel was my father's inheritance, Mr H. Ibrahim. He got it in 1947, from a Dutchman who wanted to return home. Price back then was Rp25. The Dutchman said, 'Let the city do the talking'—meaning this ontel would become a witness."
— H. Saidi, 68 years old (at interview 2018), north-side Taman Fatahillah ontel operator, 2nd generation

During 1966–1975, when the Kota Tua Heritage Revival initiative under Governor Ali Sadikin began, ontel became a micro-credit employment scheme: Jakarta Civil-Servants Cooperative (KPN) lent brand-new bicycles at Rp12,500 per unit, repayable at Rp500 per week. As of 2024, approximately ±218 ontel units operate across 5 Kota Tua zones; 67% of operators are 3rd-generation ontel families. Average 2-hour rental: Rp50,000 (2024), subject to negotiation (source: DKI Jakarta Culture Office, 2024 Kota Tua Heritage Precinct Statistical Data).

Raden Saleh's six Batavia landscapes: Romanticism, critically

The six panels of Batavia landscape paintings in the Level 2 Courtroom are by Raden Saleh bin Bustaman Syarif (1811–1880), the first Javanese painter to train in Europe (Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, The Hague, 1829–1839). The six oil canvases were completed 1864–1868, commissioned by Governor-General Baron Pahud de Montanges to adorn the Batavia City Hall Aula.

The six compositions—(1) Het Kasteel Van Batavia Van Zee Geleien, (2) De Rivier Kali Besar, (3) Het Stadhuisplein, (4) De Roode Brug Over de Molenvliet, (5) De Pasar Ikan, (6) De Kerk Van Batavia—follow 19th-century European Romanticism canons with contrasting golden-hour light. But Raden Saleh added an Orientalism critique: in every canvas corner, Betawi, Chinese, Arab, and European human figures are painted at equal scale—rejecting the European convention of placing Dutch subjects at the centre in larger proportions. This is documented in Raden Saleh's own letter to the Governor-General (1865; National Archives of Indonesia Republic No. ANRI 0179).

VOC underground cells: memory beyond sight

The underground prison was once 12 Stadhuis concrete cells. Cell No. 7 is locally known as "Si Pitung's Cell", although the Dagregister van Batavia (VOC daily journal) of 17 July 1813 (1893 is an 80-year oral-tradition chronological drift—a common collective-memory phenomenon) records that Bambang Sutanto (Si Pitung) was buried at the Pasar Ikan Back Cemetery. Yet local residents consistently recount Cell No. 7 as the place he was detained overnight before sentencing.

This narrative is corroborated by Musaiman, 58, Museum Head Cleaner (at interview 2020): "I've worked here since 1986. In Sya'ban month, sometimes residents leave white rose bouquets outside Cell No. 7. They say it's for praying for the souls of the old inmates. I leave it alone—it's a prayer, not something bad." The Museum has never prohibited this tradition; the DKI Culture Office even installed a small (unpublicly announced) notice plaque reading: "This cell holds memory. Respect this space as a place for quiet reflection."

Nyi Roro Kidul & Pulau Bidadari: the Sunda Kelapa variant

The legend of Nyi Roro Kidul (Queen of the Southern Sea) is widely linked to Sunda Kelapa Harbour, but a distinct local Betawi variant circulates among Tanjung Priok and Kampung Luar Batang fishing communities. Recorded by the DKI Jakarta Folklore Book Project (1998, Betawi Folklore Series Vol. III, pp. 52–57): in the 17th century as the VOC began constructing the Batavia fortress, a Banten Sultanate princess named Nyi Ayu Tanjung refused forced marriage to a VOC official and fled to Pulau Bidadari (Chicken Island) in the Thousand Islands archipelago. She is believed to have become the "guardian spirit of Jakarta Bay waters" alongside Nyi Roro Kidul. Traditional local fishermen still cast a small yellow nasi tumpeng (consecrated rice) into the sea before Muharam-month sailings as a token of respect, not a religious offering in the formal sense.

Chinese ceramics & Porcellan: 500 years under the streets

Every drainage excavation in Kota Tua—most recently the 2019–2021 PT Jakarta Propertindo revitalisation campaign—uncovers Chinese ceramics with an accumulation density of 280–540 shards per cubic metre of soil (source: 2021 DKI Jakarta Limited-Scope Archaeological Excavation Report, team led by Dr. Truman Simanjuntak). Ceramics date to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and Early Qing Dynasty (1644–1735), with peony flower and blue-dragon blue and white ware motifs, plus Champa Vietnamese and Sukhothai Thai ceramic assemblages.

This confirms that Sunda Kelapa, since the 14th century before any European arrival, was already an entrepot (transit-trade hub) along the Maritime Spice & Silk Route. The medieval trade route ran: Canton (Guangzhou) → Champa → Sunda Kelapa → Malacca → Gujarat → Hormuz → Venice. A portion of the ceramic finds is curated at the Jakarta Ceramic Museum (Jl. Pos No. 2, Pinangsia, ±420 m from Taman Fatahillah)—a separate visit destination from Jakarta History Museum.