bandung hotels, tourism and travel

Sunday, 06 May 2007 10:54

Geologische Dienst (Geological Museum) designed by Ir. Menalda Van Schouwenbourg, the Dutchman architect. Development of dressy building of this art deco finished in 11 months. The museum located in Rembrandt Straat (now Jalan Diponegoro), opened to visit on May 16, 1929. Renovation of Geological Museum in the year 1980 remains its original architecture of deco art. This because the building is one of cultural heritage which taken care of its continuity. It closed afternoons, sunday and public holidays. Supposed to be the largest museum of its kind in Southeast Asia, the collection exhibits is indeed impressive: fossil skeletons, a replica of the skull of Java Man, models of volcanoes, including decumentation of Krakatau's eruption in 1883, numerous minerals, meteorites, and many other of interest. A detail worth a closer look onn the Geological Museum building is the ornament above the garden gate which symbolizes the four elements of fire, water, earth, and air, together woth earth magnetism. The same building houses a library holding many of scientific treasures from the Dutch colonial period. Topographic maps of Indonesia are on sale in the cartography unit.