The Fountain Park - De Witte Paal

The Fountain Park is a name of a park in the center of Bogor City. Its location is at the end of the Sudirman Street, the main and one of the busiest street in the city.

If we draw a line from this park to Bogor Palace, then you will find a straight line. We can see the Main Gate of the Palace once called as Buitenzorg from the park.

The Fountain Park is one of the heritage that its history can be traced back to 1836, or 179 years ago. It was built based on the instruction of D.J. de Eerens, East Indie’s Governor General.

The background behind the establishment of the park was to commemorate the return of East Indie to Netherland’s hand. History mentioned that between 1811-1816, East Indie was occupied by British after they defeated Dutch.

At the first time, the park had a monument, a shaft inside. It was called as De Witte Paal, or The White Monument.

The Funtain Park - Bogor — The Letter of AIR MANCUR (Fountain)

However, after Indonesia Independence, all that could be connected to the colonialism period had been destroyed. Indonesian Goverment at that time replaced The White Monument with a fountain in 1964.

That’s when the park started to be called as The Fountain Park. Even when the fountain was destroyed and for many years there was no fountain, everybody still called it “The Fountain park”

The first important person who saw the park was Queen Sirikit from Thailand. The beautiful queen visited Bogor in 1964.

Now, the park has been revitalized and renovated. It has, again, fountains inside the area. It has been beautified.

The only thing inside the park that has been kept as it is and show the character of Dutch architecture is a power house developed in 1922. The year f its set up could be seen above its front door.

Now, the Fountain Park has returned to become Bogorians pride with its pretty look. The park is often used by visitors to take pictures or just playing with the spurting water from the fountain.