Savoy Homan Hotel

Hotel Savoy Homann, Jalan Asia Afrika 112. Little more than a bamboo hut when the German family named Homann opened their hotel on the Post Road in the 1870s, the hotel was rebuilt after the advent of the railroad to Bandung in 1884. The hotel was rebuilt in a romantic style, completed with exposed timber and intimate verandahs. In 1936, the owner, Van Es., commissioned A.F. Aalbers to redesign the hotel in a style much like the architect’s popular work, the DENIS Bank on Jalan Braga, completed in 1935. Aalbers used an extreme horizontal line to guide the design and a ribbon of balconies line the front of the hotel. A tall tower was placed to break this horizontal plane and porthole windows complete the look that seems almost nautical in effect. It was visited by the likes of Hollywood stars such as Charlie Chaplin, who visited three times, the last time with the actress Paulette Goddard. The hotel was reopened in 1939, but parts of the complex date to the 1920s.