Cut Mutiah: the mosque the Dutch built

Cut Mutiah mosque in Menteng Jakarta

Not that they ever intended it to be a mosque of course: the building was actually constructed to be the offices of N.V. De Bouwploeg, the Dutch real estate developer tasked with building homes in the exclusive neighborhood of Menteng in the 1920s and 1930s. Thankfully, this fine old building seems to be reasonably well maintained - at least in comparison to the criminally neglected buildings in Kota, which are literally crumbling into the ground for lack of any clear development policy by the Jakarta administration.

And here’s what the building looked like all those years ago.

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