The Mardijkers had been brought to
Batavia as slaves or indentured labor after the Dutch East India Company (VOC) captured
Malacca and
Galle from the Portuguese in 1640. The presence of Christian slaves in Batavia became an ethical dilemma for the Dutch Reform Church and in 1661 they were freed and granted land outside Batavia on the condition that they convert from Catholicism to
Protestantism. This very land, located 10 kilometers east of
Old Batavia, was the land given for the freed
Mardijkers. This land would develop into the
Kampung Tugu. Before the Mardijkers were freed, most of them married to women from
Banda Islands and settled in a neighborhood in Jakarta now known as
Kampung Bandan. In 1661, following the order of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC), 23 families of Portuguese were transferred to Tugu. The place was named Tugu because it was the location of the city boundary (which was marked by a
tugu,
Javanese word for "stone shaft"), or some said after the Portuguese themselves.
Kampung Tugu is the oldest Christian neighborhood in the west of Indonesia. In 1999,
Kampung Tugu was recognized by the Indonesian government as a cultural heritage. Today, the 17th-century-established
Tugu Church is the oldest building in
Kampung Tugu, thought to be one of the first building to be built by the community between 1676 and 1678, and is still well maintained by the community. ==Culture==