Penelehhistory.com: Surabaya (26/5/24) – Pietermaat. The complete one is Daniel Francois Willem Pietermaat. He was an official Resident of Surabaya, who inaugurated the construction of the Kemayoran Mosque in 1848 before he died on November 30,1848. The Kemayoran Mosque was one of two large mosques in Surabaya. According to the Soerabaijasch Handelsblad newspaper, which was published in 1935, the Kemayoran Mosque and the Ampel Mosque were the two large mosques in Surabaya.
The Kemayoran Mosque, at that time, was the Surabaya Regency Mosque. Until now, traces of the district area around the Kemayoran Mosque could still be identified. Behind (west) the Kemayoran Mosque is Kampung Kauman. The name is Kemayoran Kauman. To the east of the mosque was Surapringga (now Surabaya) square which is now the Ta’Miriah Islamic school area and SMPN 2 Surabaya. To the east of the square was the Regency Building, which is now the Post Office building.
Inside the Kemayoran Mosque, to this day, there is still an inscription attached on the wall of the Kemayoran Mosque, where the name Daniel Franscois Willem Pietermaat is engraved. Apart from that, the inscription also includes the names of Governor General JJ Rochussen and Regent of Surapringga (Surabaya) Kromojoyodirono.
Pietermaat, who died on 30 November 1848, was buried in the Peneleh European Cemetery which was opened on 1 December 1847. This grave is one of 10 selected graves which become the object of conservation in the “Peneleh as a Living Library” project, a collaborative program between Begandring Soerabaja ( Indonesia) and TiMe Amsterdam (Netherland).
On Sunday morning (26/5/24), the Begandring Soerabaia Team and Pokdarwis Peneleh carried out community service at the Pietermaat grave. The grave with a land area of 64 square meters was cleaned of grass and wild plants growing in the grave area.
Socially, they work together to clean the grave from all the layers that have covered the grave and burial area. While cleaning around the grave, a floor structure was found surrounding the grave with a floor thickness of around 20 cm. So it can be seen that the Pietermaat graveyard consists of the structure of the floor, pedastal and body of the grave as well as the surrounding iron fence. Special.
Another feature of this grave can also be seen from the location of the grave. When viewed from the aerialview, the Pietermaat grave is in the vortex (center point) of the cemetery area and in the middle of the road corridor. This special location indicates a person’s social status. Apart from Pietermaat, there were two other important officials. Namely the grave of PJB Perez and the grave of Catholic priest Van Den Elsen.
Pietermaat Grave Structure,
so far, unfortunately no one knows that the Pietermaat grave consists of a floor, a pedicel (legs) and a body. In the process of cleaning up the cemetery from wild plants and rubble, it turned out that behind it all, the floor was buried. This discovery finally revealed the special features of the graves of important Surabaya Residency officials.
In this act of community service, apart from the bottom (floor), cleaning was also carried out at the pedastal and body of the grave. The surface of the walls, after the community service, looks clean and tidy. To mark that the Pietermaat grave as one of the 10 selected graves, is now under conservation by the Joint Team of Begandring Soerabaia and TiMe Amsterdam, a border is made in the area of this grave.
From the results of this mutual cooperation action, it is hoped that it will become a pattern for the treatment of other cemeteries included in the project supported by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Activities at this cemetery have also been studied by the Region XI Cultural Conservation Center (BPK), the results of which will become a reference for conservation activities. The Begandring team has helped clean up to facilitate further conservation action.
Seeing the beauty of the diversity of typology and architecture of the graves, in the future the Peneleh European graveyard can be transformed into the Memorial Park of Peneleh, Surabaya. (nng)