Qualla: Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Davidelit, CC BY-SA 4.0. The land where 10,000 worshipers now gather for Friday prayers was, not so long ago, a soccer field. The Exelsior Makassar pitch -- 13,912 square meters of colonial-era sporting ground -- was handed over for a purpose that had nothing to do with goals and everything to do with independence. In 1947, as Indonesia fought to solidify the sovereignty it had declared two years earlier, a scholar from Bone Regency named K.H. Ahmad Bone looked at that empty field in the heart of Makassar and saw something else entirely: the foundation for the main mosque of South Sulawesi.

Image: Davidelit | CC BY-SA 4.0

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: Born from Independence

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sanko, CC BY-SA 3.0. K.H. Ahmad Bone appointed K.H. Muchtar Lutfi to chair the construction committee, and architect Muhammad Soebardjo won the design competition that would shape the building's first incarnation. Construction began on May 25, 1949, just four years after Indonesia proclaimed independ...

Image: Sanko | CC BY-SA 3.0

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: Presidents at Prayer

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rahmatdenas, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Grand Mosque quickly became a landmark that drew national attention. In 1955, it hosted the first-ever Musabaqah Tilawatil Quran festival -- a Quran recitation competition that would grow into one of Indonesia's most cherished cultural events. Two years later, Sukarno, the na...

Image: Rahmatdenas | CC BY-SA 4.0

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: The Great Transformation

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Berthold, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the late 1990s, the original structure -- functional but modest -- no longer matched the ambitions of a city that had grown into one of eastern Indonesia's most important urban centers. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a native of Makassar, championed a massive renovation that woul...

Image: Daniel Berthold | CC BY-SA 4.0

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: Twin Minarets Over the Strait

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Midori, CC BY 3.0. The renovated mosque is a different building from the one Soebardjo designed in 1949. Two minarets now rise 66.66 meters above Bulusaraung Street, their height a deliberate echo of Islamic numerology. The design shifted from its original Indonesian vernacular toward a style that ...

Image: Midori | CC BY 3.0

Where a Soccer Field Became a Cathedral of Faith: A City's Anchor

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muh kadri karim, CC BY-SA 4.0. Makassar is a port city that has reinvented itself repeatedly -- from the seat of the Gowa Sultanate to a Dutch colonial outpost, from a Japanese-occupied staging ground to the capital of modern South Sulawesi. Through each transformation, the Grand Mosque has served as a fixed p...

Image: Muh kadri karim | CC BY-SA 4.0