For reading the series of “RETRACING SURAKARTA PRINCES’ RESIDENCES”:
Chapter I: An Introduction, please click here
Chapter II: Batik Factory, please click here
Chapter III: Ndalem Sasonomulyo, please click here
Chapter IV: Delikan, please click here
Note: This article is the introduction for the series of articles "RETRACING SURAKARTA PRINCES' RESIDENCES". There will be several series in which one series represents one residence of the Surakarta Prince or other features related to the topic. Enjoy!
Exploring Solo or Surakarta can be a never ending journey. There are so many choices of spots to visit, from the popular one until something which is hidden or not common yet to see for most people who visit Solo. Of course, visiting Keraton Surakarta Hadiningrat (the palace of Surakarta King) must be one of the top first destinations. Not only as important building in Solo, but also because it has been famous place as the center of Javanese culture with majesty of its heritages. When you ask people who have visited Solo, there is a big possibility that they have visited the palace, but they may not have any ideas about the other buildings outside the main complex of the palace like the residences of the princes. In fact, those residences are also the interesting spots to explore with their own uniqueness. Those have so many potentials to be tourism spots in Solo.
Since those houses are not yet popularly known by many people, I was so excited to join the activity to visit five houses of the Surakarta Princes which was conducted by "Blusukan Solo" Community from Rumah Karnaval Indonesia organization. Blusukan is a Javanese word to mention the activity of going around in hidden or unknown place. So the focus of this community is to go exploring the places in Solo that may not be noticed by people. The program done in April 22, 2012 was entitled "Blusukan Ndalem Pangeran" or simply has the meaning as exploring the princes' residences.
