GPIB Immanuel Depok

18th-century Protestant church at the heart of Depok's original Christian community

The GPIB Immanuel church sits in the small grid of streets known as Depok Lama, near the old centre south of the railway. The current building is a 19th-century rebuilding of an earlier 1714 structure, in plain colonial-Protestant style: white walls, a simple bell tower, dark wood pews inside.

The interest is mostly historical: this is one of the very few visible reminders of the Twelve Families community founded by Cornelis Chastelein after he freed his slaves in 1714. The graveyard alongside contains many of their descendants. Services are still held in Dutch and Indonesian. Visitors are welcome outside service times — knock on the parsonage door.

things to do sight church
A story
The church was founded by Cornelis Chastelein, a Dutch merchant who in 1714 freed his 200 slaves and bequeathed them his land at Depok on condition that they remain Protestant. Their descendants — the Belanda Depok — formed a tiny, distinct Eurasian-Christian community for the next two centuries, and the church is the last serious building they left behind.

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