The Hotel Savoy Homann is a historic four stars hotel located on Asia Afrika Street,

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It was built in 1939, replacing the 19th century Homann Hotel. Designed by the Dutch architect Albert Aalbers, the hotel features

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

exterior and interior, and historic furniture. It is an architectural heritage and a fine example of art deco colonial architecture of the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

History

Origins

After the opening of the

Great Post Road The Great Post Road ( id, Jalan Raya Pos or nl, De Grote Postweg) is the name for the historical road that runs across Java that connects Anyer and Panarukan. It was built during the reign of Herman Willem Daendels (1808–1811), governor-ge ...

in 1810, many colonial

cash-crop A cash crop or profit crop is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") in subsisten ...

plantations were established in the Preanger area. During the 19th to early 20th century, Bandung has become a popular business, shopping and leisure destination for wealthy plantation owners, in particular in the weekends. As a result, the hotel business was blooming in the city. The predecessor of the present hotel, the Homann Hotel was built in 1871–72, owned and managed by the Homann family. It was famous for its delicious Mrs. Homann's

Rijsttafel ( , ), a Dutch word that literally translates to "rice table", is an Indonesian elaborate meal adapted by the Dutch following the ''hidang'' presentation of ''nasi padang'' from the Padang region of West Sumatra. It consists of many (forty is ...

. This first small building was designed in Gothic-Romantic style.

Current Hotel

In 1939, the hotel was rebuilt in a curved streamlined

style, designed by the architect Albert Aalbers. To emphasize its grandeur and luxury the name "Savoy" was added in the 1940s, which remained unchanged until the 1980s. Some of its celebrity guests during the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

era were

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

and

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het Savoy Homann Hotel TMnr 60049164

During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Japanese occupation (1942–45), the hotel functioned as luxurious

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

for Japanese soldiers. In 1955, when the first

Asian–African Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference ( id, Konferensi Asia–Afrika)—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–2 ...

was held in Bandung, Savoy Homann hosted VVIP guests and became a part of the Historical Walk. Some of the guests were

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...

Gamal Abdul Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

, and

Tito Tito may refer to: People Mononyms * Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman * Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...

. In the 1990s the hotel was renovated and a new wing was added. It was managed for a number of years by the Bidakara Group as the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel.

The building

The hotel has three wings: the Tower Wing, Garden Wing and Millennium Wing. It has a total of 185 guest rooms.

In popular culture

* The story in the book ''Bandoeng-Bandung'' by the author

F. Springer F. Springer (15 January 1932 – 7 November 2011) was the pseudonym of Carel Jan Schneider, a Dutch foreign service diplomat and writer. Schneider was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. He spent World War II in a Japanese internment camp, and su ...

published in 1994, mostly took place in this hotel.

Literature

References

External Links

Hotel Savoy Homann official website
{{coord missing, Indonesia Hotels in Bandung Buildings and structures in Bandung Cultural Properties of Indonesia in West Java Dutch colonial architecture in Indonesia Art Deco architecture in Indonesia Hotel buildings completed in 1939