iSee Point Zero (Titik Km 0)

The making of a colonial garden city

Point Zero

In every Indonesian city you’ll find a point zero marker, a stone marker with the number zero engraved in it.

Legacy of the Dutch colonial city planners, this point zero represents the centre of a city.

Make sure, that when I return a city has been built at this point.

Great Postal Road

The ‘Groote Postweg’, now known as ‘Jl. Asia Afrika’, was a military supply road connecting Jakarta all the way to Surabaya at the east end of the island, making Bandung a strategic supply point. In 1808, then-Governor General Daendels put down a stick at Point Zero and ordered his men “Make sure, that when I return a city has been built at this point”.

Garden city

Daendels’ ambitious vision became a reality: Bandung quickly developed into a charming resort town. At the turn of the 20th century, the colonial elite, European noblemen and the rich and famous all hung out here.

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