List of church buildings in Indonesia

In Indonesia, church buildings in the first stage of their creation were simple, shed-like structures built from bamboo or wood.

[2] There is evidence of the presence of Christian communities (the ancient Church of the East) in north Sumatra as early as the 7th century.

They sought to dominate the sources of valuable spices[4] and extend the Roman Catholic Church's missionary efforts.

[5] Dutch documents state that nearly all inhabitants of Ambon were Catholics, introduced by the Portuguese Jesuits, mostly arrived from Goa.

[6] Catholicism in Indonesia came into a dark age when the Protestant-Dutch VOC defeated the Portuguese and took over their possession at Mollucas in 1605 and Solor in 1613.

[8] The church was toppled by an earthquake in 1808, and the remains were completely demolished by Governor General Daendels to obtain building materials for a new government center in Weltevreden.

There he established the first of its kind in Java, a Protestant congregation consisting of native Indonesians which was named De Eerste Protestante Organisatie van Christenen (DEPOC).

Works were mostly aimed to convert native Animist population such as the Bataks, Torajans, Minahasans, Papuans and Dayaks (who today form the Christian majority of both Catholic and Protestant).

In the late 19th century until the end of the Dutch rule in 1942, Indonesia followed the Neogothic architecture that was common in Europe at that time.

Art Deco and its various Dutch architectural branches, such as the Amsterdam School or Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, became the new fashion of the Indies during this period.

[12] In 1936, Henri Maclaine Pont designed the Pohsarang Church in Kediri, which incorporated Hindu-Buddhist elements into a Western building.

As a result, after the independence of Indonesia the Protestant Church in Indonesia (GPI) (formerly known as de Protestantsche Kerk in Nederlandsch-Indië or Indische Kerk) was broke down into various denominations based on ethnicity, resulting in a relatively higher number of Protestant denomination per capita in the country.

In 1999, the Maluku sectarian conflict occurred, a religion and ethnicity-based violence which claimed many lives of both Muslims and Christians.

Local authorities refused to lift a ban on the activities of the church, despite an order from the Supreme Court of Indonesia.

[17] Three churches were burned and damaged in Temanggung, Central Java in 2011, as Christians were accused of distributing pamphlets that were "insulting" Islam.