Pura Mangkunegaran

Beside Kasunanan Palace, Solo City also has a beautiful and majestic palace, it’s Mangkunegaran Palace (Pura Mangkunegaran). The name of Pura came from Javanese language which means palace. Mangkunegaran Palace becomes the center of culture and art in Solo City. There are many valueable collections and it’s believed to come from Majapahit and Mataram Palace.

Pura Mangkunegaran was built in 1757 through a long history. After the death of Amangkurat IV, the King of Mataram Palace, the palace’s always intervened by the Dutch colonialist and then succeeded putting Adipati Anom (PB II) as an heir of the palace. Even though, Prince Arya Mangkunegaran, an legitimate heir, against the Dutch colonialist so that led to war. Then Raden Mas Said, son of Arya Mangkunegaran, took the fight to against the Dutch colonialist and finally through Giyanti Agreement, Raden Mas Said became the king of Pura Mangkunegaran (Mangkunegaran I) and inherited north region of Solo, based in Pura Mangkunegaran.

During visiting to Pura Mangkunegaran, you will be accompanied by a tour guide. When entering Pura Mangkunegaran area, you will see the wide yard and find Europe style building, Kavalerie-Artillerie which became front of Mangkunegaran’s cavalry. When you inside the gate, you also will see pavilion which represents Europe-Javaness architecture. The pavilion is always used for clasic dance and puppet performances accompanied by Kyai Kanyut Mesem (traditonal instruments-gamelab). After passing through pavilion, you will see Pringgitan where the Palace family live and Rekso Pustoko which there are many collections such as masks, traditional trains and the other collections.

Source : http://www.solocity.travel/sightseeing/mangkunegaran-palace