Cafe Batavia through time

Jakarta 1860–2025 18 photos of this spot

18 photographs taken at the same spot in Jakarta, spanning 1860–2025 — 6 of them from before 1980. Line them up and watch the place change.

The Bremen consulate on the Kali Besar canal in Batavia, photographed around 1860, when the canal was the commercial heart of the Dutch colonial city now known as Jakarta.

EU: Consulaat van de stad Bremen aan de Kali Besar in Batavia (1860) 1860 The Bremen consulate on the Kali Besar canal in Batavia, photographed around 1860, when the canal was the commercial heart of the Dutch colonial city now known as Jakarta.

EU: Nederlandse gebouwen in Batavia (1900) A 1900 Dutch colonial buildings line a street in Batavia, as the Dutch East Indies capital, now Jakarta, was known in 1900 under Netherlands colonial administration on the island of Java.

EU: Nederlandse gebouwen in Batavia (1900) B 1900 A second view of the same row of Dutch-built structures in Batavia, photographed in 1900 while the city served as the seat of government for the Dutch East Indies.

EU: Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesien. Städtischer Kanal im Vorort Weltevreden (1913) 1913 A canal running through Weltevreden, a suburb of Batavia (present-day Jakarta), photographed in 1913. Weltevreden had developed into an administrative and residential district of the colonial capital of the Dutch East Indies, laid out around a network of canals.

EU: Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesien. Städtischer Kanal mit Boot im Vorort Weltevreden (1913) 1913 A boat moves along a canal in the Weltevreden district of Batavia in this 1913 photograph, closely related to a companion image of the same waterway. Canals such as this one served both drainage and local transport functions in the Dutch colonial city.

EU: Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesien. Glodok (Altstadt). Wäscherinnen und Trockengerüste am städtischen Kanal (1917) 1917 Laundresses work along a municipal canal in the old quarter of Glodok in Batavia, present-day Jakarta, with drying racks set up along the waterway in the historic Chinatown district of the colonial city.

Gedung Arsip Bank Mandiri 2012 This building in Jakarta's old town, Kota Tua, once served as an archive of a Dutch-era trading bank and now forms part of the Bank Mandiri Museum complex. Its Art Deco facade reflects the commercial architecture built by the Dutch in Batavia during the early twentieth century.

Cafe Batavia 2012 Cafe Batavia, housed in a colonial-era building in Jakarta's old town district of Kota Tua, photographed in 2012. The district takes its name from Batavia, as Jakarta was known under Dutch colonial rule.

Jalanan Kota Tua Jakarta 2020 A street in Kota Tua, Jakarta's Old Town, photographed in 2020. Once the heart of Dutch colonial Batavia, the district still holds a concentration of 17th- to 19th-century buildings.

Batavia Fatahillah Square, Kota Tua Jakarta 01 2022 Fatahillah Square, the former center of Dutch colonial Batavia, photographed in Jakarta's Kota Tua district in 2022. Colonial-era buildings ring the square, including the old city hall that now houses the Jakarta History Museum.

Batavia Fatahillah Square, Kota Tua Jakarta 02 2022 Fatahillah Square anchors Kota Tua, Jakarta's old town built up around the former city hall of Dutch colonial Batavia. Captured in 2022, the square remains one of the best-preserved traces of the city's 17th- and 18th-century Dutch East India Company era, ringed by colonial-era buildings now used as museums.

Batavia Fatahillah Square, Kota Tua Jakarta 06 2022 Fatahillah Square in Jakarta's Kota Tua district, the heart of the old Dutch colonial town of Batavia, photographed in 2022.

Batavia Fatahillah Square - Pos Indonesia 2022 The historic Pos Indonesia post office building stands on Fatahillah Square in Jakarta's Kota Tua, captured in 2022; the square was the civic center of Dutch colonial Batavia.

Batavia Kota Tua - Museum of Fine Arts 2022 Jakarta's Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, housed in a former Dutch colonial courthouse on Fatahillah Square in the Kota Tua district, photographed in 2022.

Batavia City Hall (Jakarta History Museum) Fatahillah Square (2025) 2025 Facing Fatahillah Square in Jakarta, this building once served as Batavia's city hall and is now home to the Jakarta History Museum; photographed in 2025.

Batavia City Hall (Jakarta History Museum) Fatahillah Square (2025) 2025 Another 2025 view of the former Batavia city hall on Fatahillah Square in Jakarta, today housing the Jakarta History Museum; the square was the civic heart of the old Dutch colonial city.

Cafe Batavia, Kota Tua Jakarta (2025) 2025 Cafe Batavia, occupying a restored colonial-era building in Jakarta's Kota Tua district, photographed in 2025; the building reflects the architecture that once lined the old Dutch trading city of Batavia.

Museum Wayang, Jakarta (2025) 2025 The Wayang Museum in Jakarta's Kota Tua district, photographed in 2025; the museum, dedicated to Indonesia's shadow-puppet and puppetry traditions, stands on the site of an old Dutch church from the colonial city of Batavia.