The regal city of Surakarta, popularly known as Solo, straddles the banks of the mighty Bengawan Solo River, just 60 km (38 miles) to the east of Yogya. The Mataram court was transferred here in 1745 by Pakubuwana II following the sacking of his palace at nearby Kartasura, and since that time Solo has assiduously cultivated its reputation as a city of aristocratic refinement—of exquisite manners, elegant speech and great artistic accomplishment.

Two of Java’s greatest poets, Yasadipura and Ronggowarsito, lived here, and since the beginning of the 19th century many Europeans have come to the city to study traditional Javanese literature. As early as 1832 the Dutch opened a Javanese language institute in Solo; one of Indonesia’s first museums was founded here in 1890, followed in 1930 by an institute for the study of Javanese culture, Panti Budoyo.

The Solonese style of dance, gamelan music and wayang kulit puppetry is immediately recognized by Javanese connoisseurs on account of its subtlety and elegance. Ethereal, fluent and supple, this style has become popular throughout Indonesia—even making inroads in rival Yogyakarta, which prides itself on its own artistic traditions. Solo is also famous as a center for batik production. Although traditional hand-crafted batik has lost ground in recent years to machine-printed fabrics, there are still three major batik factories in the city and dozens of smaller ones. As with all its artistic products, Solo batik has a very distinctive look.

Solo is known as “the city that never sleeps”—its warung food stalls and kaki lima food carts operate virtually around the clock. Certain dishes are even associated with times of the day—soto (soup) in the morning, sate in the evening, nasi liwet (rice cooked in coconut cream) at night and bubur (rice porridge) in the pre-dawn hours.

Last but not least, Solo is known for the beauty of its women, as described in the well-known kroncong song, Putri Solo (‘The Solo Girl”): The Solo girl is quite a flirt—with jasmine in her hair she takes your breath away.

The town has a population of over half a million today, with a density comparable to that of Brooklyn. It seems even more crowded than this, however, as there are no high-rise buildings. But then, the Javanese are a gregarious people; mangan ora mangan nek kumpul (“family togetherness is more important than welfare”) as they are fond of saying.

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