Published in Rethinking the Future
Keraton Kasepuhan, one of the oldest royal palaces in Cirebon, West Java, offers a remarkable record of centuries of cultural exchange. Through its architecture, the palace reveals how Hindu-Buddhist, Javanese, Islamic, Chinese, and European influences became embedded in its architectural identity.
The essay examines the palace’s historical transformations, spatial organisation, symbolic elements, and successive restoration interventions to understand how architecture preserves the layered memory of a place.
