"Praise be to God that we can witness and carry out the installation of the 4,650th metal ornament, which marks the completion of the palace's ornament installation," Minister Basuki Hadimuljono stated here on Monday.
The 4,650th ornament section was installed on the west wing of the Garuda-shaped outermost external cover of the Presidential Palace. Construction workers hoisted the final ornament section to its place, decorating it with the national flag.
The metal ornament installation process took almost a year since the first section was installed in a ceremony observed by President Joko Widodo on September 17, 2023.
Along with Hadimuljono, sculptor Nyoman Nuarta also observed the topping-out ceremony. Nuarta, who was commissioned for the project, designed the brass ornaments for the palace.
Nuarta elaborated that the completed Garuda-shaped metal ornament weighed 1,398.3 tons, stood 77 meters tall, and spanned over 177 meters wide. The metal ornament consists of individual 300-kg brass and anti-corrosion steel sections produced at Nuarta's workshop in Bandung, West Java.
The Nusantara Presidential Palace will be the backdrop of the upcoming Independence Day ceremony on August 17, which, in a break of tradition, will take place both in Nusantara and the current national capital, Jakarta.
President Joko Widodo, accompanied by President-elect Prabowo Subianto, will preside over the ceremony in Nusantara. At the same time, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin will chair the ceremony in Jakarta with Vice President-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
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Translator: Aji Cakti, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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