SPECTRALWhat happened here
It was built from 1904 to 1907 as the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies railway company, the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij, with stained glass, high ceilings and a basement designed to keep the building cool.
During the Japanese occupation (1942–1945) it was taken over by the Japanese army, and its basement is said to have been used as a prison. In October 1945 Semarang saw a five-day battle between Indonesian fighters and Japanese troops, and young railway workers were among those killed around Lawang Sewu. The Tugu Muda monument opposite commemorates them. After years of neglect, the building was restored and reopened as a museum in 2011.
The legends
The stories centre on the basement, where guides point out cells known as the squatting prison and the standing prison. Visitors report a Dutch woman in white, a headless figure and soldiers in the corridors.
Lawang Sewu is also linked to the kuntilanak, the vengeful female spirit of Indonesian and Malay folklore, said to appear with long hair and a white dress. The building has featured in Indonesian horror films and ghost-hunting shows.
Fact or legend?
The occupation and the battle of 1945 are real history, remembered at the Tugu Muda monument. The ghost stories are folklore — though for many Indonesians they are also a way of remembering those years.
Visiting
Lawang Sewu is a museum run by the Indonesian railway company, open daily; the basement can be visited with a guide at certain times. It stands at the Tugu Muda roundabout in central Semarang.
