20 Facts About Surakarta

Surakarta, known colloquially as Solo, is a city in Central Java, Indonesia.

Surakarta is the birthplace of the current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.

Hominid habitation in the region of Surakarta is evidenced from roughly one million years ago, the age of the "Java Man" skeleton found 80 kilometers upstream.

Surakarta area was part of the Medang Kingdom and in this time a village called Wulayu seems to have already existed in or around the present-day city of Surakarta, as evidenced by a ferry charter issued by Balitung in AD 904.

In 1745, on the basis of astrological calculations and Dutch commercial interest, Surakarta was chosen to be the new capital of the Mataram Sultanate which was on the verge of becoming a vassal state of the Dutch East India Company.

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The official court history claims that Surakarta originally stood on a lake, which was drained by the favor of the mythical queen of the southern sea, Kanjeng Ratu Kidul.

Surakarta ruled by hereditary monarchs, who were given the unique Javanese cultural title Susuhunan.

Surakarta had spent a large amount of money on the Royal Graveyard at Imogiri, both the main sections of the graveyard and the new section that he was buried in.

However, unlike Yogyakarta, Surakarta had intense, organized resistance to the continuation of the monarchy.

In October 1945, a republican movement was established in Surakarta led by Tan Malaka, a member of the Indonesian Communist Party.

The districts of Surakarta City are tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census, together with the latest official estimates.

Furthermore, the government of Indonesia officially defines a broader region as Surakarta's extended metropolitan zone, with the acronym Subosukawonosraten as the city and 6 surrounding regencies, which reflects a broader planning region, though not a core metropolitan area as some of its regencies are not particularly suburbanized.

Surakarta is home to the West Bandits Solo of the Indonesian Basketball League.

Surakarta is the first to host National Paralympic Week in 1957 and hosted several of the subsequent games.

In 1986, Surakarta hosted the 4th FESPIC Games, making the games the first in Indonesian para-sport history in which international disabled sports games were held.

Surakarta has four train stations: Solo Balapan, Purwosari, Solo Jebres, and Solo Kota.

Solo Balapan is the largest station in Surakarta, and is the junction between Yogyakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya, while Purwosari is the junction located west of Solo Balapan, and has a connection to Wonogiri.

Surakarta is situated on Indonesian National Route 15, which connects it to Yogyakarta and Waru.

In 2010, the government of Surakarta launched a new bus service named Batik Solo Trans, which resembles TransJakarta bus rapid transit service.

One main tourist attraction of Surakarta is the Keraton Surakarta, the palace of Susuhunan Pakubuwono, the Princely Javanese court of Mangkunegaran.