Noticing the architecture of old buildings in the City of Bandung, may well be a thing of pleasure. Several buildings with original art deco at several points portray the journey of Bandung City itself. And one of the global events inseparable from the City of Bandung is the Asian-African Conference in 1955 held at the Merdeka Building of Asian African Street, across from the Savoy Homann Hotel.
The historical moment is still one of the prides of Paris Van Java. The historical building that is still taken care of has been opened as one of the facilities to know more about the momentum where Asian-African nations come together. With that, the Savoy Homann Hotel as the sleepover place for the Head of Countries that participate in the 1955 AAC; also gets the attention from public.
The Savoy Homann Hotel is one of the hotels first to be built in Bandung. Since it is located very close to the Merdeka Building, during the AAC negotiation, the Savoy Homann Hotel becomes the witness to the event. Historical Walk is the significant moment when Head of Countries walked their way from the Savoy Homann Hotel to the Merdeka Building.
The Hotel that at first was owned and ran by the German native Homann family started off a bamboo construction, reconstructed into romantic Hotel neo-gothic style. Then in 1939, a Holland native architect Albert Aalbers was instructed to redesign the hotel that now has 185 rooms.
According to Anissa, the Public Relations staff of Savoy Homann, the hotel that changed its name several times is now running under the Bidakara Group, making the name set into the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel.
“From the construction alone, the hotel has three main buildings that were the first to be erected in Bandung. Since the beginning, the name Homann was used in accordance to the name of the founder of the hotel,” explained the PR with beautiful hair.
As a four-star hotel, the Savoy Homann Bidakara becomes the chosen spot for local and foreign tourists’ sleepovers. Besides that, the major event related to history has a certain appeal for the tourists, especially foreign guests. According to Nisa, they deliberately spend their time in the hotel for knowing that their former Head of Coutry spent their time at the Savoy Homann during the AAC negotiation.
To further reckon and preserve the historical heritage, the hotel constructed a glass cabinet to display several memorabilia, such as dining utensils and also the golden book that documented the important guests who had their time of staying at the hotel.
“We have the golden book that is not in any other hotels, because we are often visited by important guests especially Head of Countries. There was even a person that made a story on the golden book. The guest book is now still kept and placed in a glass cabinet to make it visible but undamaged. There is also an interesting story around it; there were tourists from China that come to this hotel just because they wanted to see the autograph of their former Head of the Country,” told the lady who has been in the hotelier industry for quite some time.
Several facilities those can still be enjoyed by the guests also give more to the Parahyangan feel. The flow of the flute played live welcomes all the arriving guests. According to Nisa, the hotel has done many renovations but keeps the front view of the hotel because the historical value is on the artistic construction style just as it was first erected.
In support to the Bandung City tourism program, for many times the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel becomes the sleepover place and the host for both national and international events. For more than a century the name Savoy Homann has been placed in various tour guide books. The three names known as the pride of Paris Van Java are Homann-Braga- Concordia. Those are the names that hold a past memory for foreign tourists.
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