The smaller Pakualaman Karaton is also open the visitors. It has a small museum, a pondopo that can hold a full gamelan orchestra, and a curious colonial house. The Ambarrukmo Place in the grounds of the Ambarrukmo Places Hotel, around 7km east of the centre was built in the 1890s as a country house for Hamangkubuwono VII.
Museum
On the northern side of the main square in front of the Karaton, Sono-Budoyo Museum is the pick of Yogya’s museums. Thought not particularly well maintained, it has a first-class collection of Javanese art, including wayang kulit puppets, topeng (masks), kris and batik. There is a courtyard packed with Hindu statuary and artifacts from further a field, including superb Balinese carving, wayang kulit perfomences are held every evening from 8am to 10pm.
Near the Karaton entrances, Museum Kereta Karaton has exhibits of opulent chariots of the sultan.
Dating back to 1765, Benteng Vredeburg is a Dutch-are from opposite the main post office. The restored fort is now a museum with dioramas showing the history of the independence movement in Yogya, the architecture is wroth a look, but the dioramas are designed for Indonesian patriots.
Up until his death in 1990, Affandi, Indonesia’s best known artist internationally, lived and worked in a unusual three house studio overlooking the river, about 6km east of the town centre. The Affandi Museum in the grounds exhibits his inversions work, as well as painting by his daughter Kartika and other artist. Affandi is buried in the beck garden.
Sasmitaluka Jendral Sudirman is the memorial home of general Sudirman, the commander of the revolutionary forces who died shortly after the siege of Yogay in 1948.
Museum Sasana Wiratama honors the Indonesian hero, Prince Diponogoro, who was leader of the bloody but futile rebellion of 1825-30 against the Dutch. A motley collection of the prince’s belongings and other exhibits are kept in the small museum at his former Yogya residence.
Museum Perjuangan in the southern part to the city, as a small and a rather for collection of photographs documenting the Indonesia Revolution, the large Army Museum display documents, home-made weapons, uniform and medical equipment from the revolutions years.
Kota Gede
Kota Gede has been famed as the hub of Yogya’s silver industry since the 1930s. But this quiet old town, which is now a suburb of Yogya, was the first capital of the Mataram Kingdom, founded by Penembahan Senopati in 1952. Senopati is buried in the small mossy graveyard of an old mosque near the town’s central market. You can visit the sacred tomb (open around 9am noon Sun, Mon & Thurs, around 1pm-3pm Fri), visitor should wear conservative dress. On days when the tomb is closed there is little to see here.
More about → Places at Yogyakarta > The smaller Pakualaman Karaton
