The history of Laweyan is even longer than the city of Solo itself. Back to the age of an ancient kingdom named Pajang in the 14th century, Laweyan was the center of textile business. The name itself came from the Javanese word lawe, which literally means spun cotton yarn. Traditional batik production came to Laweyan through the hands of Kyai Ageng Henis, a religion preacher who also taught batik production technique to local residents.

Entering Lalan Sidoluhur houses along both sides are mostly huge and also serve as batik showroom priced from as low as a few bucks to more than a grand. There you can also see batik production which is processed in traditional way inherited along generations. Interested to get your hands on? You can take short course of batik production process.

Further along the street is getting narrower, squeezed among soaring concrete fence of gigantic house built by rich batik merchants. Centuries ago, batik merchants were extremely wealthy and with their wealth they expressed their social status by building huge house. Passed across generations, most of those business remain in operation. Entering batik showroom here you will get an additional tour of beautiful palace that perfectly combine Javanese ancient architecture with strong influence of European, Chinese, and Islamic elements.