Vredeburg Fortress, the oldest loji in Yogyakarta

The oldest loji in Yogyakarta is located precisely opposite the Grand Post Office, namely a building named Benteng Vredeburg or Vredeburg Fortress. The building of the fortress that is often called Loji Besar or Loji Gede meaning the Grand Building was built in 1776 - 1778, only two years after the foundation of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat Kingdom, one of Mataram Kingdom fractions. The fortress initially named Rustenburg was intentionally built in the axis of Kingdom - Tugu in order to control what the Kingdom did.

Being a fortress, the Loji Besar area was equipped with various supporting buildings, for example the spying place and the resting place for the soldiers. When Loji Besar was still used as fortress, there was a canon that intentionally was directed to the Kingdom in a ready-to-fire position to ease the raid. It was done in order for the Kingdom to acknowledge the power of Dutch troops.

Now, you can explore each corners of Loji Besar because it is open for public. In addition to the fortress with characteristic European architecture, you can also see diorama of Indonesian struggle to reach the independence. The weird thing of the fortress is that the name does not reflect the image of a fortress; rust means resting, vrede means peace and burg means fortress. Rustenberg that means fortress for resting and Vredeburg meaning fortress of peace are not suitable names.