Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta (also Jogjakarta or Jogja) is a city and province on the island of Java, Indonesia. It is the only province in Indonesia that is still formally governed by a precolonial Sultanate, the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. The city is known as a center of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows. It is also famous as a center for Indonesian higher education.

The city

At Yogyakarta's center is the kraton, or Sultan's palace. Surrounding the kraton is a densely-populated residential neighborhood that occupies land that was formerly the Sultan's sole domain; evidence of this former use remains in the form of old walls and the ruined "Water Castle" (tamansari), built in 1758 as a pleasure garden. No longer used by the sultan, the garden had been largely abandoned,and was used for housing by palace employees and descendants. Reconstruction efforts began in 2004, and an effort to renew the neighborhood around the kraton has begun.

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While the city sprawls in all directions from the kraton, the core of the modern city is to the north, site of a few buildings with distinctive Dutch colonial-era architecture, and the contemporary commercial district.

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Jalan Malioboro, with rows of sidewalk vendors and nearby market and malls, is the primary shopping street for tourists in the city, while Jalan Solo, further north, is a shopping district more frequented by locals.

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At the southern end of Malioboro, on the east side is the large local market of Beringharjo, not far from Fort Vredeburg a restored Dutch fort.

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