In 1575, Ki Ageng Pemanahan established a new empire, named as Mataram Islam, in the middle of a forest. The empire tried to resurrection the Ancient Mataram in a new world order, Mataram Islam. Soon, settlement was built surround the palace, a quiet forest became a crowded city, trees were replaced by buildings. The city was named Mentawisan.  The citizen became more diverse, instead royal family and soldiers, there were merchant, peasant, blacksmith, etc, were came to Mentawisan.

So, where the word 'kotagede' is from? Some people say it comes from the label of the biggest city in the last decade.  It refers to 'sargede', the central market in the middle of city.  But for some kind of joke people say that kotagede comes from 'kotane penggede' (the city where rich and power people lived in).  Perhaps it's true, because last decade ago, Kotagede was a capital city in the south. In Jogjakarta, people are better known Kotagede than Mentawisan. So, probably you should ask direction to Kotagede, everyone will answer correctly.

In Kotagede, you will go by a 2,5 meter wide road, only 2 little cars can pass away, and lots of bicycles or hansoms too. The Alley of Kotagede's kampong more narrow, perhaps 1 - 1,5 meter wide. Only one man walk and a motor cycle or bicycle can pass the alley. Along the road, you will see old facade buildings, almost of them were built in 1930, but inside of the kampong, if you lucky, you will see some 'pendopo', traditional Javanese building made from big old teakwood, which was built in 1700.

Buildings in Kotagede are very unique and complex; you will see a pendopo, with Art Noveau style or Chinese ornament inside. I think Kotagede is a big architectural laboratory where tens of architecture styles are established. At the west city, you can see Kalang Palace, a big and beautiful home of Kalang Noble, a family of silver craftsmanship and merchant who made jewel for the king. Today, Kalang Palace is a place where people can sell and buy a silver jewelry. Along the street in Kotagede, you can see hundreds of silver shop. The silver craft tradition has existed for tens years ago, so the Islam tradition.

At south of Sargede Market, you will see the heritage of Mataram Islam which is built by red brick, looks strong and quiet. In the complex, there is first mosque in Kotagede, named as Besar Mosque. People say, the mosque was built by Sultan Agung with the help of Buddhists and Hindus who lived surrounding the complex, so you can see some Hindu's and Buddha's details in the architecture. In the yard, there is a big old banyan, it's very cozy sitting under the tree. If you lucky, you will see a masseur there! At the south of mosque, there are ancient sacred grave yard of the ancestor. In particular night, people come to the graveyard to pray. Everybody can enter to the grave yard, it is restricted to them to wear Javanese clothes and do the praying.

In mid-twentieth century, Kota Gede became synonymous with silverworks and silver handycrafts, since the area has become the home of silversmith in Yogyakarta. At the time of Indonesian independence in the 1940s, and after considerable promotion and publicity to the silverworks within this locality, Kota Gede gain popularity as the center of Javanese silver handycraft.

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• BENTENG VREDEBURG, The Fortress for Colonial Residence
• LOTEK COLOMBO, Delicious Steam Salad
• MUSEUM ULLEN SENTALU, Javanese Culture and Art Museum
• KRATON JOGJA, A Timeline of Javanese Architecture
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