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Lawang Sewu - A Historical Building With Eerie Image.
Known as a haunted house
Lawang Sewu means Thousand Doors describing the building which has so many doors and windows although in fact those doors don't count until a thousand.
Lawang Sewu is a three-storied building which was built in 1904 by The Dutch Train Company -NIS (Nederlands- Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij) located in Semarang, the capital city of Central Java. After the country gets it independence, the building was then taken over by Indonesian Train Company (PT KAI), also used as office by The Command of Central Java Military Area, and office of Ministry of Transportation.
The local government has declared to preserve this building and make it as one cultural heritage of Central Java. Like other old buildings constructed by the Dutch many years ago, Lawang Sewu is dominated by white tones, has many hallways directing to different rooms with high ceilings and roof tops.
Lawang Sewu and its surrounding areas were the scenes of some big independence wars during the nation's revolution. Some heroic wars took place and claimed many lives from both sides, the Indonesian patriots and the enemy soldiers.
The wars were even painful with the presence of torturing chambers on the basement of Lawang Sewu which becomes horrible evidence until now. History also records there were many lives gone at this place.
People visiting the building will feel the coldness brought by breezes coming in through those windows and, combines with so many unoccupied rooms and very quiet surroundings, sense a spooky atmosphere in there .
Although I didn't witness any supernatural appearances during my visit to Lawang Sewu, except the sense of horror, but there are many testimonies about the presence spirits and ghosts around this antique building.
- An appearance of a red-haired lady was accidentally shot when a TV channel made a program with the scenes of Lawang Sewu, which was believed the spirit of a dutch lady.
- There is regular appearance of spirits in one of the rooms on third floor. If interested (and mentally strong) in seeing those spirits, visitors may ask the caretaker of the building to invite them to appear.
- A sight of Dutch soldiers practice marching sometimes perceptible in the yard in front of the building (look at the last picture).
