The Kauman Great Mosque is the official royal mosque of the Yogyakarta Sultanate, built in 1773 by Hamengkubuwono I. It stands just west of the Kraton, connected to the palace complex by a ceremonial path, and functions as a living mosque used by the local community as well as a heritage site.
The architecture is traditional Javanese: a tiered roof (tajug tumpang tiga) in the Javanese mosque style rather than the domed form common across the Islamic world, surrounded by a whitewashed wall with a towering gateway. The interior, with its carved wooden columns and cool stone floor, is open to non-Muslim visitors outside of prayer times — dress modestly and remove your shoes at the entrance. The mosque's role in the Java War gives it a significance that goes beyond architecture: it was effectively the command post of Indonesia's most consequential anti-colonial uprising.