Baiturrahman Grand Mosque

The Baiturrahman Grand Mosque is the heart of Banda Aceh: a white building crowned with black domes and slim minarets, standing at the centre of the city on the northern tip of Sumatra. It has become the emblem of the Acehnese people, a symbol of faith, culture and resistance, and in December 2004 it became known around the world when it remained standing as the Indian Ocean tsunami swept through the city around it. The building suffered only cracks, and its 35-metre minaret by the main gate was left slightly tilted. For two weeks the mosque served as a shelter for people who had lost their homes before prayers resumed.

A royal mosque has stood here since at least the reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda, who is said to have built one in 1612; some accounts place the first mosque as early as 1292. That building had the multi-tiered thatched roof typical of Acehnese architecture. In April 1873, during the first Dutch expedition against the Sultanate of Aceh, Acehnese fighters used the mosque as a stronghold, and it burned when flares set the thatch alight. To ease the anger this caused, the Dutch commander promised to rebuild it. The first stone was laid in 1879 and the new mosque was completed on 27 December 1881, under the last sultan of Aceh, Muhammad Daud Syah. Because it was built by the colonial power the Acehnese were fighting, many at first refused to pray in it; over the following century it became a source of local pride.

The new building broke completely with the old one. It was designed by the Dutch architect Gerrit Bruins and adapted by L. P. Luijks, who supervised the work, in a Mughal Revival style of bulbous domes and minarets more familiar from British India than from Sumatra. The distinctive black domes are covered in shingles of hardwood. Materials came from far afield: building stone from the Netherlands, marble for the floors and stairs from China, stained glass from Belgium, together with carved wooden doors and bronze chandeliers. At first there was a single dome and a single minaret; extensions in 1935, 1958 and 1982 brought the total to seven domes and eight minarets.

Getting there

The mosque stands in the centre of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, Indonesia. Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport (BTJ) is about 12 km away in a straight line and is linked to the centre by road.