Every young Muslim girl will relate with me: every Ramadan you cross your fingers so hard that your period will not come until so close to Eid, in the hopes that you won’t have to miss out on that many days of fasting—which you’ll need to make up for later. Alas, mine came only a week after Ramadan started—which was pretty much a couple weekends ago. It not only meant that I wasn’t allowed to fast and pray, it also kept me from entering mosques altogether. That being said, it didn’t stop me from continuing our Ramadan Mosque Tour. There’s always Agung who (thankfully) is always happy to help me take photos. And so, we made our second stop: Masjid Cut Meutia in Menteng, right across the street from the Gondangdia train station. There was a time when we used to stop by the area a lot to visit the nearby Goethe Institute, so we were already familiar to the mosque itself—although we never entered it…until now.
📷 Fujifilm X-T100 with Fujinon Aspherical Superb EBC XC 15-45mm lens
Every young Muslim girl will relate with me: every Ramadan you cross your fingers so hard that your period will not come until so close to Eid, in the hopes that you won’t have to miss out on that many days of fasting—which you’ll need to make up for later. Alas, mine came only a week after Ramadan started—which was pretty much a couple weekends ago. It not only meant that I wasn’t allowed to fast and pray, it also kept me from entering mosques altogether. That being said, it didn’t stop me from continuing our Ramadan Mosque Tour. There’s always Agung who (thankfully) is always happy to help me take photos. And so, we made our second stop: Masjid Cut Meutia in Menteng, right across the street from the Gondangdia train station. There was a time when we used to stop by the area a lot to visit the nearby Goethe Institute, so we were already familiar to the mosque itself—although we never entered it…until now.
📷 Fujifilm X-T100 with Fujinon Aspherical Superb EBC XC 15-45mm lens
From Colonial Marvel to an Islamic Icon
When you go to Gondangdia station and exit from the South gate, you will be met with a gorgeous view of an enormous colonial building across the street. But until you read the arching signage at its gate, you wouldn’t have guessed it was a mosque. The deeply art deco architecture and lack of minarets would have thrown you off—you might even have thought it was a government office or museum of sorts. And, technically, you wouldn’t have been mistaken. That is the wonder of Masjid Cut Meutia.
The building itself saw its completion in 1912, long before Indonesia declared its independence. At first, it was built to become the office of a Dutch architecture firm called N.V. De Bauploeg. Over the years, it has changed its function multiple times until it was officially turned into a mosque in 1987—as proprieted by A.H. Nasution.
Even if this building wasn’t a mosque, it’s already unique in its own right. The architecture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The façade looks so intricate, with three flights of stairs leading from the ground floor to the first floor—which might have originally served as a piano noblé. Hidden behind the balcony is a landing that sits between these two floors, overlooking the main entrance of the mosque.
The mosque has three main entrances. The one on the façade leads straight to the main prayer hall. By the north entrance is where the men’s ablution room and restroom can be found. Fun fact: there is a Padangnese restaurant right next door, whose back door leads straight to this part of the mosque. The women are led to the south entrance, where their ablution room and restroom can be found. This entrance also leads straight to their prayer hall area.
When you go to Gondangdia station and exit from the South gate, you will be met with a gorgeous view of an enormous colonial building across the street. But until you read the arching signage at its gate, you wouldn’t have guessed it was a mosque. The deeply art deco architecture and lack of minarets would have thrown you off—you might even have thought it was a government office or museum of sorts. And, technically, you wouldn’t have been mistaken. That is the wonder of Masjid Cut Meutia.
The building itself saw its completion in 1912, long before Indonesia declared its independence. At first, it was built to become the office of a Dutch architecture firm called N.V. De Bauploeg. Over the years, it has changed its function multiple times until it was officially turned into a mosque in 1987—as proprieted by A.H. Nasution.
Even if this building wasn’t a mosque, it’s already unique in its own right. The architecture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The façade looks so intricate, with three flights of stairs leading from the ground floor to the first floor—which might have originally served as a piano noblé. Hidden behind the balcony is a landing that sits between these two floors, overlooking the main entrance of the mosque.
The mosque has three main entrances. The one on the façade leads straight to the main prayer hall. By the north entrance is where the men’s ablution room and restroom can be found. Fun fact: there is a Padangnese restaurant right next door, whose back door leads straight to this part of the mosque. The women are led to the south entrance, where their ablution room and restroom can be found. This entrance also leads straight to their prayer hall area.
The exterior isn’t the only unique thing about this building—the prayer hall is just as interesting. Since the building wasn’t built to serve as a mosque, it does not take the qibla (direction of salat, facing the Ka’bah in Makkah) into account. Hence, the diagonally-placed mats lining the floor of the prayer halls. Even the imam’s spot is placed in an awkward angle adjacent to the surrounding walls. The hall itself, however, exudes a sense of majesty with its hanging chandeliers and high ceiling that goes three stories farther up.
What stands out most to me about this mosque is its quintessential art deco elements. First of all, I cannot help but notice the contrast between sharp angles and curved edges all over the building—most notably on the first-floor balcony. From here, you can look out to the entire mosque complex—the parking lot, the small park out back and the street food vendors lining the streets. Secondly, a lot of the elements of the mosque take on geometrical shapes—most notably the arched ventilations. On the first floor, the arched ventilations are now adorned with some Arabic calligraphy of prayers or verses from the Qur’an. The windows tend to come in rectangular shapes and are mostly fitted with stained glass, decorated with timeless organic patterns.
The only thing we couldn’t figure out was how to reach the very top part of the building.
Hand-me-down shirt // thrifted jeans // unbranded sandals // Bernadet Putri scarf // photos of me by Agung
The exterior isn’t the only unique thing about this building—the prayer hall is just as interesting. Since the building wasn’t built to serve as a mosque, it does not take the qibla (direction of salat, facing the Ka’bah in Makkah) into account. Hence, the diagonally-placed mats lining the floor of the prayer halls. Even the imam’s spot is placed in an awkward angle adjacent to the surrounding walls. The hall itself, however, exudes a sense of majesty with its hanging chandeliers and high ceiling that goes three stories farther up.
What stands out most to me about this mosque is its quintessential art deco elements. First of all, I cannot help but notice the contrast between sharp angles and curved edges all over the building—most notably on the first-floor balcony. From here, you can look out to the entire mosque complex—the parking lot, the small park out back and the street food vendors lining the streets. Secondly, a lot of the elements of the mosque take on geometrical shapes—most notably the arched ventilations. On the first floor, the arched ventilations are now adorned with some Arabic calligraphy of prayers or verses from the Qur’an. The windows tend to come in rectangular shapes and are mostly fitted with stained glass, decorated with timeless organic patterns.
The only thing we couldn’t figure out was how to reach the very top part of the building.
Hand-me-down shirt // thrifted jeans // unbranded sandals // Bernadet Putri scarf // photos of me by Agung
Iftar at a Red Mosque
Since this mosque is bigger, a lot more people flock over here come iftar time. It paints a pretty quaint picture. There were a lot of street food vendors selling ta’jil (bite-sized iftar food) and they all seem pretty friendly—a lady who tends the nearby food stalls told us the story of one of the cats, whose owner recently lost his legs. The visitors, though, tend to keep to their groups.
Earlier that day we saw a van stopped by the façade of the mosque to drop off rice boxes to the mosque. We couldn’t help but to wonder who those were for—and were we allowed to grab a box ourselves? Though we didn’t in the end.
Agung and I opted to hang out at a container-cum-coffee shop by the parking lot called KOPINANGKAU. A lot of people have also taken their place there, lining their tables with snacks, tea and coffee while waiting patiently for the sun to come down. As usual, Agung brought his own ta’jil, so we only ordered ourselves iced tea. I wasn’t fasting, of course, but had the decency to wait until sun down to stuff my face.
Since this mosque is bigger, a lot more people flock over here come iftar time. It paints a pretty quaint picture. There were a lot of street food vendors selling ta’jil (bite-sized iftar food) and they all seem pretty friendly—a lady who tends the nearby food stalls told us the story of one of the cats, whose owner recently lost his legs. The visitors, though, tend to keep to their groups.
Earlier that day we saw a van stopped by the façade of the mosque to drop off rice boxes to the mosque. We couldn’t help but to wonder who those were for—and were we allowed to grab a box ourselves? Though we didn’t in the end.
Agung and I opted to hang out at a container-cum-coffee shop by the parking lot called KOPINANGKAU. A lot of people have also taken their place there, lining their tables with snacks, tea and coffee while waiting patiently for the sun to come down. As usual, Agung brought his own ta’jil, so we only ordered ourselves iced tea. I wasn’t fasting, of course, but had the decency to wait until sun down to stuff my face.
This is the last part of our Ramadan Mosque Tour.
Thank you for staying tuned this Ramadan!
This is the last part of our Ramadan Mosque Tour.
Thank you for staying tuned this Ramadan!