Cimanggis House: Dutch Colonial Mansion Near RRI Complex to be Set as Museum

RRI.CO.ID, Depok – Near a complex belonging to Indonesia’s public radio network Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI), stands a legendary mansion. After being abandoned for years, the former residence of a landlord during the Dutch East Indies era has been renovated and is set to become a museum.

Rumah Cimanggis (Cimanggis House) is a historic mansion in southern Jakarta, specifically in Sukmajaya District, Depok, West Java. The building is also known as Gedong Tinggi Rumah Cimanggis ("High Building – Cimanggis House").

The mansion stands directly west of the RRI complex, which houses the Multiplatform Broadcast Center (MBC) training facility and the shortwave transmitter of RRI Voice of Indonesia (VOI). To reach the building, visitors must pass through a housing complex for employees of the former Department of Information – a former Indonesian government ministry that preceded the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs — before entering the RRI compound.

Cimanggis House was built between 1771 and 1775, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in Depok city. Built on plantation land, the house was originally commissioned as a gift by the 29th Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), Petrus Albertus van der Parra, for his wife, Adriana Johanna Bake.

“However, Van der Parra died before construction of the house was completed. Johanna Bake never lived in the house until the end of her life either. It was merely a landhuis, or country retreat, which they visited from time to time. They themselves lived in Batavia,” chairwoman of the Depok Heritage Community, Ratu Farah Diba, said, as quoted by depok.go.id in 2023.

Despite this, Cimanggis House helped stimulate the local economy at the time. Not long afterward, Johanna Bake established the Cimanggis traditional market on part of the land east of the mansion, turning it into an economic center for locals and a resting place for travelers passing through the area.

After Johanna Bake died, ownership of the mansion changed hands several times. One former occupant was a Chinese captain, whose presence influenced some of the mansion’s architectural features.

“This is why Chinese cultural elements can also be seen in the house, particularly in the roof, which has pointed ends on both sides. They resemble the tails of the Chinese phoenix, a feature commonly found in Chinese architecture,” Ratu explained.

The RRI transmitter facility was inaugurated near Rumah Cimanggis in 1969. The mansion subsequently became part of the RRI complex and was used as an official residence for more than a dozen employee families.

“In 2002, the roof of Cimanggis House began to leak. As a replacement, the local government built a housing complex for RRI employees called the Department of Information Housing Complex,” she said.

After the RRI employees moved out, Rumah Cimanggis was left abandoned for years before Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing renovated the building between 2020 and 2021. As of 2026, RRI Voice of Indonesia observed that the building has yet to be put to use, but the Depok City Government has a plan to turn the historic mansion into a museum.