Penelehhistory.com: Surabaya (7/6/24) – The Old City of Surabaya has become the name of a new tourist destination in Surabaya. Actually, the place is not new. But the packaging is new. The Old City area of Surabaya, especially the European Village, has physically changed, becoming neater and more beautiful. No less than Jakarta and Semarang.
It should be noted that the European Kampong (City) of Surabaya is territorially an area that was once bordered by a wall. To the north of the wall there was once a defensive fort that directly faced the Kalimas river as a barrier between the European Kampong and the Oosterlingen area, namely the Chinatown, Malay and Arab Areas.
This Walled European Town was known as Stad van Soerabaja, Surabaya City, a city whose concept was brought from Europe. Therefore, the face of the Old City of Surabaya in the colonial era (VOC era) had a structure similar to ancient cities in Europe, for example, the Netherlands.
Based on empirical observations with ancient cities in the Netherlands in 2023, there are names of ancient cities there. Namely Amersfoort and Nijmegen. Both ancient cities were equipped with walled town structures.
The city of Surabaya was also once walled. Not only walled, but it was also equipped with defensive fortifications. From information gathered during a field visit to Amersfoort in 2023, Amersfoort is a Dutch gemeente, located in the province of Utrecht. In 2019 this area had a population of 156,286 people. Amersfoort is the fifteenth city of the Netherlands. How ancient.
Like most other cities in Europe, Amersfoort also has various old buildings (from the Middle Ages) such as churches, forts/city gates with canals that surround them, museums, school buildings and so on. Amserafot city facilities are the same as those in Kota Lama Surabaya. Now it’s all gone.
If you want to know the face of the Old City of Surabaya in the past, then the Old City of Amersfoort can be a comparison.
Not only Amersfoort City, another similar city in the Netherlands is Nijmegen. Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, founded during the Ancient Roman era. The original name of Nijmegen is Novio Magus which means New Market. Archaeological traces of Ancient Roman culture are preserved in the Het Valkhof Museum.
This city is located near the river de Waal and is one of the borders of the Netherlands with Germany. The proximity to the German border led to the destruction of the city center in 1944 by allied air bombardment. At that time, the allied troops suspected that Nijmegen was a city in German territory.
The circumference or area of the three Old Towns of Surabaya, Amersfoort and Nijmegen are not far apart. All three are crossed by rivers, there is a canal, there is a city hall, there is a church, there is a market, and there is a marina.
Well, the Old City of Surabaya has historical references that can be the basis for the direction of physical revitalization, function and future vision. Even though these three ancient cities are not very big, they all have a big role that extends beyond the borders of foreign walls.
According to A. Hermas Thony, a Gerindra Party politician, the term city comes from the word “polis”, which means a city state whose territory is physically bordered by fortified walls. This walled city is like Surabaya, Amersfoort and Nijmegen. In this territory there is administrative power to regulate the territory inward and coordinate with other territories for outbound affairs, such as the city states of Monaco and the Vatican.
Now in the concept of the Old City of Surabaya, it would be too shameful to forget the function of this city both internally and externally. Or is there a need for a comparative study looking at the city of Amersfoort in the Netherlands? (nan).