Inaugurated in 1978, Istiqlal Mosque (id: Masjid Istiqlal) owned by Indonesian State Secretary with Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesian Republic.
Istiqlal meaning ‘Independence’, is a reminder of Indonesia’s struggle for national independence. Its 17 years construction was personally supervised by the first President of Indonesian Republic, Soekarno. The largest mosque in Southeast Asia both in structure and capacity, as it can accommodate congregation of up to 120,000 people, has 4 levels of balcony.
Located at Jalan Taman Wijaya Kusuma in central Jakarta, on the northeastern corner of the Merdeka Square, the Istiqlal Mosque stands out with its 45 meters diameter dome and supported by 12 huge columns which covered by aluminium plates. Standing almost right across the old Catholic Church (id: Gereja Katedral) at the corner of Jalan Lapangan Banteng, the mosque was designed in 1954 by Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect from North Sumatra.
