Hotel Majapahit

Hotel Majapahit is the grandest colonial building in Surabaya — a 1910 Dutch art nouveau hotel that still operates as a luxury property under Accor management. The lobby and common areas are open to non-guests for a drink or a meal, and worth a look for the architecture alone: high ceilings, tiled floors, and a period atmosphere that has survived modernisation intact.

The hotel is best known historically as the site of the "flag incident" of September 1945, a confrontation between Dutch colonial forces and Indonesian nationalists that became one of the sparks of the Revolution. The building stands on Jalan Tunjungan, Surabaya's main commercial street.

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A story
On 19 September 1945, a group of Indonesian nationalists climbed to the hotel's roof and tore the blue strip from the Dutch tricolor flag — leaving just the red and white of the Indonesian flag. The Dutch colonial troops responded by opening fire. The incident is commemorated annually and a bronze plaque on the building marks what Indonesians call the "flag incident."

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