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Cape Town is a city with a location known to everybody, and it is perhaps the most scenic of all the major cities in the world. The 1,085 meter/3,558 feet high Table Mountain forms together with the Atlantic Ocean a perfect place for tourism and development of a modern metropolis, which offers unique travel experiences at the southern tip of Africa.
A good starting point in the modern South African metropolis is the refurbished harbor area, Waterfront, where you will find an international ambience, shops, dining and a variety of activities. Cape Town’s heritage buildings are close by, including the country’s oldest, the Castle of Good Hope. There are also many interesting museums in this area.
You are always close to the nature in Cape Town. The great ocean in front of the city, and the mountains behind are appealing. The cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain is a must do, and the views are excellent in all directions and almost impossible to imagine until you have been there.
Cape Town is the main city of Cape of Good Hope and southern Africa. Cape of Good Hope is the most famous place, but Cape Agulhas further to the southeast is the continent’s southernmost place. On a tour to here, there are many stops along the coast, i.e. the penguin colony in Simon’s Town.
Table Mountain is Cape Town’s landmark. It is a mountain that can be seen from almost everywhere in the city, and on the sea, the distinctive profile has been a landmark for land surveyors for centuries. The mountain is Cape Town’s natural landmark and one of the city’s biggest attractions.
Table Mountain is 1,086 meters high, and on top is a flat plateau measuring approximately three kilometers across. Steep mountain sides rise on the sides of the plateau flanked by Devil’s Peak/Duiwelspiek to the east and Lion’s Head/Leeukop to the west. Devil’s Peak is a peak of 1,000 meters in height, while Lion’s Head reaches a height of 669 meters.
The contiguous Devil’s Peak, the plateau of Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and the lower Signal Hill lie around Cape Town, which with the mountains as a backdrop is positioned as the center of a natural amphitheater. It is a wonderful location that no other city in the world has.
The flat top of Table Mountain is due to the fact that the mountain is a so-called synclinal mountain, which means that the top was once the bottom of a valley. The anticline, which was the highest point of the fold mountains, lay to the east, but it has weathered away along with softer layers, leaving Table Mountain flat because it was the lowermost and very hard layer of the local sandstone.
You can easily get to the top of the mountain with The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, which departs from Tafelberg Road at a height of 302 meters above sea level. From here you take the rather large cable car cabins up to the flat plateau, where you descend at a height of 1,067 metres.
Once you have climbed Table Mountain, you can enjoy a unique view of Cape Town and the city’s surroundings, as well as the sea and the rocks around the mountain. You can also go for some lovely walks on the mountain, where the highest point is marked by Maclear’s Beacon, which is a 5m rock mound. The mound was built in 1844 at the initiative of Cape Town’s Astronomer Royal.
Signal Hill is a 350 meter high mountain located quite close to the center of Cape Town. The mountain got its name from the signal flags formerly used from the mountain to report weather forecasts and instructions for anchoring to arriving ships. The location near Cape Town’s natural harbor and later traffic harbor made Signal Hill a suitable location for this information.
A ball was also dropped on Signal Hill until 1934, indicating that the time had become exactly 1 p.m. This allowed ships to set their clocks thereafter. It is also here on the mountain that you can see and hear the traditional cannon Noon Gun, which fires a salute every day at 12:00.
You can both walk and drive to the top of Signal Hill, from where there is a fantastic view. The mountain stretches along Cape Town’s city centre, and therefore it is easy to see and recognize the city’s sights from above. There are also beautiful views of Lion’s Head and Table Mountain, which are extensions of Signal, and finally, there is a magnificent view of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is a vibrant part of Cape Town’s harbor and the site has played a historically important role for the city and for the colony. It started in 1654, when Jan van Riebeeck built a dock in the early settlement, where Cape Town otherwise had a relatively well-protected natural harbour. From the port, Jan van Riebeeck serviced ships of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie with supplies on the voyages to Java and Batavia.
In 1858, common winter storms caused the destruction of over 30 ships, prompting Lloyds of London to refuse insurance for ships wintering in Cape Town. To avoid this situation, the construction of piers started in 1860, when English Prince Alfred broke the ground for what developed into Cape Town’s central harbour. With the new piers, Cape Town became a year-round port again.
The name of the first harbor basin was Alfred Basin, and it became too small for the large traffic that came with the gold discoveries in South Africa. Therefore, Victoria Basin was built as an extension of Alfred Basin towards the sea, and thus Cape Town’s harbor arose in the years from 1860 to 1920. Several buildings were also erected, of which the Clock Tower from 1882 stands as the area’s landmark. The tower was built in 1882 and served as the harbormaster’s office building.
In 1988, the old harbor basins became the center of the desire to develop the area for tourism with, among other things, shopping opportunities, activities and places to eat. Since then, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront has become one of the city’s most well-known and visited places, with renovated historical sights, museums, cruises, hotels and countless shops and restaurants.
Among the many options is a visit to Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town Diamond Museum and Zeitz MOCAA. The aquarium gets its name from Cape Town’s location close to where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. At the Diamond Museum you can learn about diamonds and their South African history, and there are also kimberlite samples and replicas of famous diamonds. Zeitz MOCAA stands for Zeitz Museum and Contemporary Art Africa and is a museum of contemporary art from Africa and the continent’s diaspora.
The Michaelis Collection is an excellent art museum housed in The Old Town House/Burgerwaghuis, formerly Cape Town’s Town Hall. The Old Town House was built 1755-1761 during the time when Rijk Tulbagh was governor. The building stands beautifully in the so-called Cape Town Rococo, and it was the town hall until 1905, when the new town hall building on Grand Parade opened.
The museum’s collection is heavy on Dutch and Flemish painters from several centuries. The art museum was established with Max Michaelis’ donation in 1914 of a collection of works by, among others, Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Jan Steen and Jacob Ruisdal. Max Michaelis was a British businessman and art collector from Johannesburg.
At the art museum, you can admire the permanent exhibition from The Michaelis Collection, and in addition, changing exhibitions are arranged so that there is always something new to experience in the fine setting, which in itself is interesting as Cape Town’s old political centre. At the museum, you can also see a collection of Chinese ceramics from the Tang and Qing dynasties and acquired works from South African and international artists.
Bo-Kaap is a neighborhood in Cape Town known for its many brightly colored houses and cobbled streets. Bo-Kaap is the oldest preserved area in Cape Town, and here you can experience the highest concentration of pre-1850 houses in South Africa.
In 1760, Jan de Waal bought a piece of land in this area and he built small houses for rent, which were inhabited by slaves. Some of the earliest of these houses can be seen at 42 Leeuwen Street and 71 Wale Street, and the house on Wale Street is now used as the Bo-Kaap Museum.
Many of the slaves in the Cape Colony came from Muslim countries in Southeast Asia, and therefore the Ko-Kaap became home to many Muslims. This had the consequence that mosques were built in the area, the first of which was the Auwal Mosque in 1794. Slavery was freed in 1834, and then some of the freed slaves moved to the Bo-Kaap, where several of the characteristic small houses of the area.
During slavery, the rental houses were white. The colored facades are believed to have originated from the early 1900s, which was also a century with the so-called Group Areas Act, which separated residential areas by ethnicity. With the Group Areas Act, Bo-Kaap’s Southeast Asian identity was strengthened. And from 1943, they began to preserve the unique area, which has been significantly renovated in recent decades.
Large parts of the Bo-Kaap have been declared worthy of preservation, and many hundreds of houses are included in the district’s cultural-historical zone. You can learn more about the area at the Bo-Kaap Museum, located in a house from the 1760s, which stands as originally built. The museum depicts the cultural history of the early Southeast Asians in the Cape Province, and you can see furnishings and furnishings from the 19th century.
Houses of Parliament is the name of South Africa’s parliament buildings, located in Cape Town. Buildings is a large facility which consists of three different units. The original Parliament building was built 1875-1884 to designs by Charles Freeman and Henry Greaves. It stands as a beautiful and impressive neoclassical building with elements from Cape Dutch architecture.
Parliament is located in the corner of The Company’s Garden in central Cape Town, and the complex was expanded in the 1920s according to drawings by the architect Herbert Baker, who among other things also designed the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The facility was expanded again in the 1980s to house the parliament, which was established by South Africa’s 1983 constitution as a tricameral system with parliaments for whites, coloreds and Indians.
It was Queen Victoria who authorized the establishment of a Parliament in the Cape Colony in 1853. The first sessions were held in the British Governor’s residence, Tuynhuys, and later Parliament met in the Cape Town Masonic Lodge. The lodge building was not stately enough for the colony, and despite financial challenges, it was decided to build the new building from 1875-1884, which still stands today as one of the city’s most beautiful buildings.
In today’s South Africa there are three capitals, of which Cape Town is the capital of the legislative assembly, which means the country’s parliament. Pretoria is South Africa’s administrative and executive capital as a government city, and Bloemfontein has traditionally been the capital of the country’s legislature. However, the city’s Supreme Court is located in Johannesburg.
Iziko South African National Gallery is the South African national gallery, and the art museum is considered the leading in the country. The museum’s history dates back to a meeting in Cape Town’s library on 12 October 1850 where it was proposed to erect a building in the Company’s Garden for art exhibitions.
The meeting in 1850 was held by the South African Fine Arts Association, which organized South Africa’s first art exhibition the following year. It took place in a school. However, it took several years before the current museum building could be put into use. The foundation stone for the building was laid in 1914, and the inauguration took place in 1930.
The museum’s collection started with a donation of 45 works from Thomas Butterworth Bayley’s collection in 1872. It has since been expanded, and now you can experience a fine collection of the country’s own art as well as of British, Dutch, Flemish, French and various African artists. The main emphasis is on European masters from the 17th-19th centuries.
Company’s Garden is a park in Cape Town and it is South Africa’s oldest public garden and park. The Company’s Garden dates back to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie and the first settlers who planted a lush garden here in 1652, growing crops to sell as supplies to ships passing through to Java and Batavia.
In 1653, the colony’s settlers became self-sufficient in vegetables through garden cultivation, and most popular crops from both Europe and Asia were grown here by the late 1650s. At the end of the 17th century, the Dutch governor Simon van der Stel beautified the garden, which thereby acquired a supplementary park-like character, which became known.
Today there are many experiences to be found in the Company’s Garden. You can see, for example, cultivated trees from the 17th century, a rose garden from 1929, an aviary, a pond with fish and, in general, many beautiful green areas. You can also visit the museums Iziko South African Museum/Suid-Afrikaanse Museum and Iziko National Gallery/Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Kunsmuseum here.
The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum founded in 1825 as the first in the country. The museum was moved to its present location in the Company’s Garden in 1897. The museum houses exciting collections of African zoology, palaeontology and archaeology.
There are many highlights in the museum’s collections, which are quite varied. Among other things, you can see rock art from ancient African cultures, excavated fossils and many elements from the South African oceans. There is also a large natural history collection with several dioramas, meteorites, a planetarium and a theme about man’s place in the universe.
The Castle of Good Hope is a fortress that was built in early Cape Town as protection for the settlement and colony. It was the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie that built the fort and its bastions between 1666 and 1679, and at that time it was located on the coastline along Table Bay. Over the years, must have filled large areas in the northern part of central Cape Town, which is why the Castle of Good Hope is located inside the city today.
The current fort replaced the earlier fortress construction Fort de Goede Hoop, which Jan van Riebeeck had built from wood and clay when he arrived here in 1652. The first fort had to be reinforced as a result of the risk of war between the Netherlands and England. The new fort was given five bastions, named respectively Leerdam, Buuren, Katzenellenbogen, Nassau and Oranje.
Today, the Castle of Good Hope is the oldest building in South Africa that is still in use, and today the fort stands as beautiful as in the old days after a thorough restoration. It is not only South Africa’s oldest building, but also the best preserved of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie’s forts, which were built on the routes between the Netherlands and present-day Indonesia.
You can visit the fort, which is an impressive fortress construction, which you can already see from the outer walls and the entrance to the facility. Above the main entrance you can see the fort’s bell tower, and when you enter the solid walls, you can take a closer look at the building and its functions. One can also visit the fort’s military museum.
Grand Parade is Cape Town’s oldest square. It was built in 1652 at Fort de Goede Hoop, which was Cape Town’s first fortification. At the time, the fort and thus also the Grand Parade was located on the city’s coastline, but after land fills, the Grand Parade is today some distance from the sea. The name Grand Parade derives from the fort because the laid out area was used as a parade ground.
Over the years, buildings were built around the square, and you can see several sights here. The Castle of Good Hope fortress lies to the east, while the city’s town hall dominates the south-west side of the square. The town hall Cape Town City Hall was built in the years 1900-1905 and stands as one of the most impressive buildings in Cape Town today. Immediately east of the Town Hall is the Cape Town Central Library. The library is located in the old military training hall, the Old Drill Hall, which was built in the 1880s.
From Grand Parade you have easy access to the city’s main railway station, which is located a short distance to the north on reclaimed land. Local Metrolink trains run from the station, and there are also departures to Johannesburg and Durban from here. From Grand Parade, you can also easily walk to the entire central business district in Cape Town, where you can, for example, visit cozy Greenmarket Square and take a walk in the Company’s Garden.
Cape Town City Hall is Cape Town’s former town hall and meeting place for the city’s council. The large building was constructed in the Edwardian style between 1900 and 1905 following an architectural competition won by Harry Austin Reid and Frederick George Green. The imposing and tower-adorned building served as the town hall until the Cape Town Civic Center opened in modern architecture in 1978. The Cape Town Civic Center is located in front of the city’s main railway station and thus close to the old town hall on Grand Parade.
For a number of years, Cape Town City Hall was used to house the city’s central library, while today the beautiful building is used for various exhibitions, cultural events and concerts. The concerts are held in the town hall auditorium, where a large organ from England was installed in its time, which the organist of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral designed especially for Cape Town City Hall.
The old town hall building has been the setting for important political events several times, and in 1990 Cape Town City Hall entered South African history as the place where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after his release from many years of imprisonment. He gave the speech on February 11, and today a statue stands on the very spot on the City Hall balcony from which Mandela spoke.
Long Street is one of the main thoroughfares in Cape Town, and there is a historic bohemian atmosphere along the street and its diverse architecture. In the 1900s there were many theaters in Long Street, but today it is more cafes and eateries that dominate the street scene.
If you take a stroll along Long Street, you quickly notice the Victorian buildings with cast iron balconies, some of which are located. They lie side by side with houses with Cape colonial Dutch inspiration and some modern constructions.
There is a special building at 40 Long Street. It is a church which was consecrated in 1804 as the first in South Africa with a chancel. The church today functions as the South African Missionary Museum, which is a church museum with a focus on its importance for the South African slaves.
Groote Kerk is the primary building of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town. The first church on this site was built from 1678, but from the old church only the tower has been preserved to this day. The rest is Groote Kerk is a newer construction, built by Herman Schuette in 1841 with a large and open church space. Groote Kerk is today the oldest preserved Christian church in South Africa.
The Dutch Reformed congregation arose early in Cape Town, where the first church services were performed by a layman in 1652. Over the years, the desire for a priest in the city grew, and it was met when the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie sent Joan van Arckel to the city in 1665. Among other things, Van Arckel held services in the town’s fort before the first stone church could be put into use in 1704.
St George’s Cathedral is Cape Town’s Anglican cathedral and the seat of the city’s archbishop. For a long time there was no Anglican church in Cape Town, and the Bishop of Calcutta also noted this when he visited the city in 1827. Previously, Anglican services had been held in the city’s castle and also sometimes in the Groote Kerk.
On the bishop’s visit, the colonial government donated a piece of land for the construction of a church, and the bishop consecrated the site. Governor Lowry Cole laid the foundation stone for the church in 1830, and it was taken into use in 1834. In 1847, Robert Gray became the first bishop in the church, which thereby gained the status of a bishop’s seat.
The church from the 1830s became too small during the 19th century, and at the end of the century a collection was started for a new cathedral. The foundation stone for the new and current cathedral was laid in 1901 with the participation of the later King George V and Queen Mary. The church was designed by architect Herbert Baker and was completed in 1936.
Tuynhuys is a beautiful building in central Cape Town, which is the seat of the country’s president. Tuynhuys means ‘the garden house’, and that’s how the history of the building started. It was the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie that built the house in 1674 as a place to keep tools for cultivating and looking after The Company’s Garden.
In 1682, the tool house was converted into a guest house, where the governor Simon van der Stel could have visitors stay. The guest house was then expanded several times until 1751, and throughout the 18th century Tuynhuys was used by the Dutch governors as a summer residence. The building was given a style that was inspired by contemporary Dutch buildings in Batavia and Amsterdam, among others.
Since Dutch times, the British governors also used Tuynhuys as a residence, so the house continued as a political center in the city. The house was also the seat of the Cape Colony’s first session of the newly established parliament in 1854, and in 1990 the steps in front of Tuynhuys became the place where President Frederik de Klerk spoke and proclaimed the end of the apartheid policy as a finished capital.
The District Six Museum is a cultural history museum located in the former residential area of central Cape Town, which was called District Six. Housed in a former Methodist church, the museum opened in 1994 to depict the neighborhood’s history.
District Six was a neighborhood in Cape Town that was redeveloped in 1970s South Africa, and the approximately 60,000 inhabitants had to move in that connection. At the museum, you can see a large map of the now defunct neighborhood, road signs from the area and descriptions from former residents and information about the redevelopment of District Six.
Simon’s Town is a beautifully situated town by False Bay on the east coast of the Cape Peninsula, where the Cape of Good Hope lies to the south. The town was established in 1680, and it is named after Simon van der Stel, who was the first governor of the Cape Colony. Today, Simon’s Town is a cozy town that is known, among other things, as a base for the South African navy.
There are several attractions in and around Simon’s Town. One of the more curious of its kind is the grave of the dog Just Nuisances. Just Nuisance was a Great Dane born in 1937 and was an official service dog in the British Navy. The dog served on HMS Afrikander and after its death in 1944, Just Nuisance received an official naval burial. One can see the dog’s grave and also a statue of Just Nuisance in Simon’s Town today.
The most well-known attraction around Simon’s Town is Boulder Beach, located a little south of the town. On Boulder Beach there is a penguin colony of African penguins, which grow to about 50 centimeters tall. The penguins settled here in 1985, and it is one of the only places in South Africa where you can experience the penguins along the coast.
Cape of Good Hope, der også kendes som Kap det Gode Håb, er et af det afrikanske kontinents mest kendte steder. Cape of Good Hope er den sydligste del af halvøen Cape Peninsula, der ligger syd for Cape Town. Halvøens sydligste punkt er berømt og nemt at komme til, men det er dog ikke det sydligste punkt på det afrikanske kontinent. Den status tilfalder Kap Agulhas længere mod øst.
På Kaphalvøens sydlige del ligger Cape Peninsula National Park, som byder på kilometervis af smukt landskab med udsigt over det omkringliggende hav, og i nationalparken ligger Cape of Good Hope, der naturligvis tiltrækker mange besøger. Når man kigger ud over havet mod syd, er Antarktis det første landområde, man når i en lige linje. Det er Atlanterhavet, der ligger ud for Kap det Gode Håb. Lidt mod finder ligger Cape Point, og skillelinjen mellem Atlanterhavet og Det Indiske Ocean er flydende mellem Cape Point og Kap Agulhas.
Cape of Good Hope hed oprindeligt Cabo das Tormentas, og det var den portugisiske opdagelsesrejsende Bartolomeu Dias, der gav punktet dette navn. Det skete, da han som den første i moderne tid rundede Kaphalvøen i 1487 på Portugals vej fra Europa til Asien. Få kilometer fra Kap det Gode Håb kan man i dag se korset Bartolomeu Dias Cross, der blev rejst til minde om Dias’ opdagelsesrejse hertil.
Cape Agulhas is Africa’s southernmost point, and it lies approximately 55 kilometers south of the Cape of Good Hope to the northwest. Incidentally, it is in the area between these two points that the warm Agulhas Current turns around and returns to the Indian Ocean. The current helps to make the sea off eastern South Africa warmer than the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
The place is marked as the continent’s southernmost point, and it is a popular excursion destination not least from the big city of Cape Town. It is easy to get to the rocky coast, where the very southern tip of Africa is located. In this area you can also see the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse, which is one of South Africa’s oldest lighthouses. The tower was built in 1849, and close to it is L’Agulhas, the continent’s southernmost city.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is a wonderfully beautiful botanical garden located at the foot of the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The first platings took place in 1660, when the colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck planted almond trees in the area as protection and marking of the then colony’s border.
The wooded area passed with the British rule from 1811 to a Briton who, among other things, planted chestnut trees and built a bathhouse here by the area’s natural spring. From 1823, the site was partly cultivated with fruit trees, oak trees and grapes. Cecil Rhodes bought the land in 1895 and he donated the area to the nation in 1902.
The following year, Henry Harold Peterson came to Cape Town as the city’s leading botanist, and in 1911 Peterson visited Kirstenbosch to assess the suitability of the area for a botanic garden. It was a success, and the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden was established in 1913, and since then the garden has become a delightful botanical experience, where emphasis has been placed on many local plants. The beautiful and mountainous surroundings help make the garden something special.
Robben Island is an island located in the northern part of Table Bay off Cape Town. The island has a size of just over 5 square kilometers, and its name comes from the Dutch name for seals, and therefore Robben Island means Seal Island.
It was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias who discovered the island in 1488, and both the Portuguese and the Dutch used Robben Island as a supply point on the voyages between Europe and Asia. After the settlement of Cape Town, the settlers used the island, among other things, for sheep farming, as the sea around it provided protection from the wild animals of Africa.
Since the last half of the 17th century, Robben Island has been a place where political prisoners were kept. It is believed, among other things, that chief Autshumato was held captive here. The Dutch also interned prisoners from present-day Indonesia and the leader of the mutiny on the slave ship Meermin on Robben Island. The most famous prisoner on the island, however, was Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned here for 18 years out of the 27 years he was sentenced to.
You can take the trip to Robben Island from Cape Town’s harbour. There are trips where you sail to the island and get a tour of the island’s most famous historical places, which belong to the Robben Island Museum. It concerns old quarries and military installations, and you also visit the now closed prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. On the trip you will also come to Mandela’s cell.
Century Boulevard, Century City
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72 Waterkant Street
Main Road, Claremont
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Bill Bezuidenhout and Willie/Schoor Avenues, Bellville
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Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
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39 Carl Cronje Drive
willowbridge.co.za
Waterfront, Greenmarket Square, St. George’s Mall, Long Street
MTN ScienCentre
Canal Walk 407, Century City
mtnsciencentre.org.za
Ratanga Junction
Century City
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Two Oceans Aquarium
Dock Road, Waterfront
aquarium.co.za
The first Europeans in the Cape Town area were the Portuguese delegation, led by Bartolomeu Dias sailed there from Lisbon in 1487. He, like Vasco da Gama, led an expedition in 1497 to exploit the seaward coast of the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese named the place Cabo da Boa Esperança, Cape of Good Hope.
In 1652, the Dutch East India Company / Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie founded a supply depot here. It was a strategically good place at the southern tip of Africa and halfway to the ports to the east. It was Jan van Riebeeck and other company employees who founded the settlement and soon after sowing crops, so that the Dutch ships could come ashore and get fresh supplies. It was on this occasion that Company Gardens was established. To expand the colony, workers from Asian Dutch colonies came two years after, and not least to cultivate more of the fertile soil, people were imported from Java and Madagascar.
The supply station took the form of an actual town, and the people of Riebeeck built a smaller fortification so that the town could protect itself from the local population. In 1666, the present fort in the city was begun as a stone work. Back then, it was on the water’s edge, providing protection against land and water.
In 1679, Simon van der Stel became governor of the Cape Province, and he founded the prolific wine production, which is today one of the region’s important export products. Some French Huguenots came to the area in 1688, and they made a positive contribution to the development of the area’s wine.
The colony grew over the following decades, and by the mid-18th century the population was up to 12,000, distributed roughly equally between Europeans and slaves.
By the end of the 18th century, the Dutch colonial empire had weakened, and through wars in Europe Britain could expand. During the same period, the Dutch East India Company was ruined, thus laying the foundation for the British conquest of the Cape Province and thus Cape Town, the Dutch name for Cape Town. The British declared the city a free port.
By a peace agreement in 1802, the colony became Dutch again, but just three years later there was war again in Europe, and the following year the area became British again. Through a peace agreement in 1814, the Cape Province became British for a sum of money to the Netherlands. However, Dutch ships continued to have access to the port.
In 1822, Governor Lord Charles Somerset initiated a series of initiatives to develop and Anglify the area, including English being the mother tongue instead of the Dutch. In 1826, Somerset left the post.
In 1834 slavery was released and new districts were created. The city’s Muslim population settled on that apartment in Bo-Kaap. Among many Dutch families, there was skepticism about the ever-increasing distance from the Dutch past, and they began a larger migration in 1836 towards the interior of present-day South Africa. It was the so-called pioneers who, in 1838, among others, settled in the Pretoria area.
In 1840, the Cape Town municipality was formed for the city’s 20,000 inhabitants, half of whom were of European origin. As with Australia, Britain would send prisoners to the Cape Province, but with the local opposition and with the help of London’s politician, Lord Adderley in particular, this was prevented.
In the following decades, new infrastructure was established, including a road to Stellenbosch and a railway via Stellenbosch to Paarl and Wellington. In 1860 a modern harbor was established with the establishment of the first dock in the present Waterfront. Later, horse-drawn tram lines came along and a telegraph cable was added to Europe.
In 1882 Dutch became official language again in line with the English language. Two years later, the Cape Province parliament was inaugurated. Around the turn of the century, street lighting was established, electric trams were running and a major project of paving Cape Town was completed.
In 1905, Cape Town was elected as the seat of the newly formed South African Union Legislative Assembly. In the Cape Province, the population groups retained the right to vote in parliament.
In the first half of the 20th century, Cape Town grew steadily and many areas were laid under Cape Town. The population increased and in 1927 the first major urban plan was adopted. In 1935, major land reclamation projects started up close to the city center.
In the 1930s, non-European voting rights were limited, and when the National Party won the parliamentary elections in 1948 with the introduction of a racially divided society as the central element, the country’s period of apartheid began. In a few years, an opposition of non-Europeans was formed, and from the 1960s it came to physical settlement. In 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to prison and sent to Robben Island Prison outside Cape Town.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, a number of major civil engineering works were performed in Cape Town. The modern center was built, major road works were carried out and in 1988 an initiative was taken to establish the popular Waterfront area.
In 1990, President Frederick de Clerk legalized all political organizations and Nelson Mandela was released. In 1995, the World Cup in one of the country’s major sports, rugby, was held in South Africa, and the opening match was played in Cape Town, which has since then established ever more exciting sights for visitors.
Overview of Cape Town
Cape Town is a city with a location known to everybody, and it is perhaps the most scenic of all the major cities in the world. The 1,085 meter/3,558 feet high Table Mountain forms together with the Atlantic Ocean a perfect place for tourism and development of a modern metropolis, which offers unique travel experiences at the southern tip of Africa.
A good starting point in the modern South African metropolis is the refurbished harbor area, Waterfront, where you will find an international ambience, shops, dining and a variety of activities. Cape Town’s heritage buildings are close by, including the country’s oldest, the Castle of Good Hope. There are also many interesting museums in this area.
About the upcoming Cape Town travel guide
About the travel guide
The Cape Town travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the South African city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Cape Town is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
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Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
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When you buy the travel guide to Cape Town you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Table Mountain • Long Street • Bo-Kaap • Penguins • Cape of Good Hope
Overview of Cape Town
Cape Town is a city with a location known to everybody, and it is perhaps the most scenic of all the major cities in the world. The 1,085 meter/3,558 feet high Table Mountain forms together with the Atlantic Ocean a perfect place for tourism and development of a modern metropolis, which offers unique travel experiences at the southern tip of Africa.
A good starting point in the modern South African metropolis is the refurbished harbor area, Waterfront, where you will find an international ambience, shops, dining and a variety of activities. Cape Town’s heritage buildings are close by, including the country’s oldest, the Castle of Good Hope. There are also many interesting museums in this area.
About the upcoming Cape Town travel guide
About the travel guide
The Cape Town travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the South African city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Cape Town is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Cape Town and South African
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Cape Town you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Iziko South African National Gallery is the South African national gallery, and the art museum is considered the leading in the country. The museum’s history dates back to a meeting in Cape Town’s library on 12 October 1850 where it was proposed to erect a building in the Company’s Garden for art exhibitions.
The meeting in 1850 was held by the South African Fine Arts Association, which organized South Africa’s first art exhibition the following year. It took place in a school. However, it took several years before the current museum building could be put into use. The foundation stone for the building was laid in 1914, and the inauguration took place in 1930.
The museum’s collection started with a donation of 45 works from Thomas Butterworth Bayley’s collection in 1872. It has since been expanded, and now you can experience a fine collection of the country’s own art as well as of British, Dutch, Flemish, French and various African artists. The main emphasis is on European masters from the 17th-19th centuries.
Company’s Garden is a park in Cape Town and it is South Africa’s oldest public garden and park. The Company’s Garden dates back to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie and the first settlers who planted a lush garden here in 1652, growing crops to sell as supplies to ships passing through to Java and Batavia.
In 1653, the colony’s settlers became self-sufficient in vegetables through garden cultivation, and most popular crops from both Europe and Asia were grown here by the late 1650s. At the end of the 17th century, the Dutch governor Simon van der Stel beautified the garden, which thereby acquired a supplementary park-like character, which became known.
Today there are many experiences to be found in the Company’s Garden. You can see, for example, cultivated trees from the 17th century, a rose garden from 1929, an aviary, a pond with fish and, in general, many beautiful green areas. You can also visit the museums Iziko South African Museum/Suid-Afrikaanse Museum and Iziko National Gallery/Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Kunsmuseum here.
The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum founded in 1825 as the first in the country. The museum was moved to its present location in the Company’s Garden in 1897. The museum houses exciting collections of African zoology, palaeontology and archaeology.
There are many highlights in the museum’s collections, which are quite varied. Among other things, you can see rock art from ancient African cultures, excavated fossils and many elements from the South African oceans. There is also a large natural history collection with several dioramas, meteorites, a planetarium and a theme about man’s place in the universe.
The Castle of Good Hope is a fortress that was built in early Cape Town as protection for the settlement and colony. It was the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie that built the fort and its bastions between 1666 and 1679, and at that time it was located on the coastline along Table Bay. Over the years, must have filled large areas in the northern part of central Cape Town, which is why the Castle of Good Hope is located inside the city today.
The current fort replaced the earlier fortress construction Fort de Goede Hoop, which Jan van Riebeeck had built from wood and clay when he arrived here in 1652. The first fort had to be reinforced as a result of the risk of war between the Netherlands and England. The new fort was given five bastions, named respectively Leerdam, Buuren, Katzenellenbogen, Nassau and Oranje.
Today, the Castle of Good Hope is the oldest building in South Africa that is still in use, and today the fort stands as beautiful as in the old days after a thorough restoration. It is not only South Africa’s oldest building, but also the best preserved of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie’s forts, which were built on the routes between the Netherlands and present-day Indonesia.
You can visit the fort, which is an impressive fortress construction, which you can already see from the outer walls and the entrance to the facility. Above the main entrance you can see the fort’s bell tower, and when you enter the solid walls, you can take a closer look at the building and its functions. One can also visit the fort’s military museum.
Grand Parade is Cape Town’s oldest square. It was built in 1652 at Fort de Goede Hoop, which was Cape Town’s first fortification. At the time, the fort and thus also the Grand Parade was located on the city’s coastline, but after land fills, the Grand Parade is today some distance from the sea. The name Grand Parade derives from the fort because the laid out area was used as a parade ground.
Over the years, buildings were built around the square, and you can see several sights here. The Castle of Good Hope fortress lies to the east, while the city’s town hall dominates the south-west side of the square. The town hall Cape Town City Hall was built in the years 1900-1905 and stands as one of the most impressive buildings in Cape Town today. Immediately east of the Town Hall is the Cape Town Central Library. The library is located in the old military training hall, the Old Drill Hall, which was built in the 1880s.
From Grand Parade you have easy access to the city’s main railway station, which is located a short distance to the north on reclaimed land. Local Metrolink trains run from the station, and there are also departures to Johannesburg and Durban from here. From Grand Parade, you can also easily walk to the entire central business district in Cape Town, where you can, for example, visit cozy Greenmarket Square and take a walk in the Company’s Garden.
Cape Town City Hall is Cape Town’s former town hall and meeting place for the city’s council. The large building was constructed in the Edwardian style between 1900 and 1905 following an architectural competition won by Harry Austin Reid and Frederick George Green. The imposing and tower-adorned building served as the town hall until the Cape Town Civic Center opened in modern architecture in 1978. The Cape Town Civic Center is located in front of the city’s main railway station and thus close to the old town hall on Grand Parade.
For a number of years, Cape Town City Hall was used to house the city’s central library, while today the beautiful building is used for various exhibitions, cultural events and concerts. The concerts are held in the town hall auditorium, where a large organ from England was installed in its time, which the organist of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral designed especially for Cape Town City Hall.
The old town hall building has been the setting for important political events several times, and in 1990 Cape Town City Hall entered South African history as the place where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after his release from many years of imprisonment. He gave the speech on February 11, and today a statue stands on the very spot on the City Hall balcony from which Mandela spoke.
Long Street is one of the main thoroughfares in Cape Town, and there is a historic bohemian atmosphere along the street and its diverse architecture. In the 1900s there were many theaters in Long Street, but today it is more cafes and eateries that dominate the street scene.
If you take a stroll along Long Street, you quickly notice the Victorian buildings with cast iron balconies, some of which are located. They lie side by side with houses with Cape colonial Dutch inspiration and some modern constructions.
There is a special building at 40 Long Street. It is a church which was consecrated in 1804 as the first in South Africa with a chancel. The church today functions as the South African Missionary Museum, which is a church museum with a focus on its importance for the South African slaves.
Groote Kerk is the primary building of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town. The first church on this site was built from 1678, but from the old church only the tower has been preserved to this day. The rest is Groote Kerk is a newer construction, built by Herman Schuette in 1841 with a large and open church space. Groote Kerk is today the oldest preserved Christian church in South Africa.
The Dutch Reformed congregation arose early in Cape Town, where the first church services were performed by a layman in 1652. Over the years, the desire for a priest in the city grew, and it was met when the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie sent Joan van Arckel to the city in 1665. Among other things, Van Arckel held services in the town’s fort before the first stone church could be put into use in 1704.
St George’s Cathedral is Cape Town’s Anglican cathedral and the seat of the city’s archbishop. For a long time there was no Anglican church in Cape Town, and the Bishop of Calcutta also noted this when he visited the city in 1827. Previously, Anglican services had been held in the city’s castle and also sometimes in the Groote Kerk.
On the bishop’s visit, the colonial government donated a piece of land for the construction of a church, and the bishop consecrated the site. Governor Lowry Cole laid the foundation stone for the church in 1830, and it was taken into use in 1834. In 1847, Robert Gray became the first bishop in the church, which thereby gained the status of a bishop’s seat.
The church from the 1830s became too small during the 19th century, and at the end of the century a collection was started for a new cathedral. The foundation stone for the new and current cathedral was laid in 1901 with the participation of the later King George V and Queen Mary. The church was designed by architect Herbert Baker and was completed in 1936.
Tuynhuys is a beautiful building in central Cape Town, which is the seat of the country’s president. Tuynhuys means ‘the garden house’, and that’s how the history of the building started. It was the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie that built the house in 1674 as a place to keep tools for cultivating and looking after The Company’s Garden.
In 1682, the tool house was converted into a guest house, where the governor Simon van der Stel could have visitors stay. The guest house was then expanded several times until 1751, and throughout the 18th century Tuynhuys was used by the Dutch governors as a summer residence. The building was given a style that was inspired by contemporary Dutch buildings in Batavia and Amsterdam, among others.
Since Dutch times, the British governors also used Tuynhuys as a residence, so the house continued as a political center in the city. The house was also the seat of the Cape Colony’s first session of the newly established parliament in 1854, and in 1990 the steps in front of Tuynhuys became the place where President Frederik de Klerk spoke and proclaimed the end of the apartheid policy as a finished capital.
The District Six Museum is a cultural history museum located in the former residential area of central Cape Town, which was called District Six. Housed in a former Methodist church, the museum opened in 1994 to depict the neighborhood’s history.
District Six was a neighborhood in Cape Town that was redeveloped in 1970s South Africa, and the approximately 60,000 inhabitants had to move in that connection. At the museum, you can see a large map of the now defunct neighborhood, road signs from the area and descriptions from former residents and information about the redevelopment of District Six.
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