In Search of "Tillema Plein" at Nieuwe Tjandi Semarang

 

Semarang City have already well planned by Dutch Colonial Authority. Remaining buildings, streets and city parks from this Colonial Era could be found until today. Even most of these heritage objects today are still preserved and used for current citizen's daily activities including streets and city parks. One of the famous old city park, particularly at Candi Baru hill area is Taman Jend. Sudirman or aldo commonly known as Taman Gajah Mungkur. Of course; the softscaping and hardscaping details are no longer appear in its original appearances. But as a site, this place is already existed since Dutch Colonial Era.

From old vintage photo, we can identify a large open ground in front of Ereveld (a Dutch Cemetery Site) it called as Tillema Plein. The Ereveld. I think is still remain as it is. As seen in first photograph, if we sit in the park facing to the south-west direction, we can see the cemetery with (I think) Ungaran Mount as a background. Even if facing to both the long sides of the park, I think we still can see some houses that come from same era, the era of "Nieuwe Tjandi", the era when Semarang city is developed and extended to the southern hill area.