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Johannesburg is the economic locomotive of southern Africa and one of the major cities on the continent. The city is the largest in South Africa and consists almost of two city centers, the old town center and the modern Sandton, where large shopping centers and modern buildings prevail.
The old town center has its sights. This is where the city was developed after the foundation, and a lot of its history can be seen here. The sights are large public institutions, high-rise buildings, museums, etc. This is also where the city’s main railway station and other important functions are located.
Johannesburg consists of more than the old town center and Sandton. Many will also recognize the name Soweto, a neighborhood known widely around the world. This is the township area where the country’s former president, Nelson Mandela, came from.
The surrounding area of ​​Johannesburg is also interesting with good opportunities for excursions. A trip to one of the country’s three formal capitals, Pretoria, is a good choice and a chance to see the government buildings of South Africa, museums and monuments. It is of course also possible to enjoy some of South Africa’s nature and national parks in the vicinity of Johannesburg.
Constitution Hill is an area of ​​Johannesburg that vividly depicts part of South Africa’s history from colonial to modern democracy. From history, a prison and the city’s old fort can be seen as the central parts of the complex, and today the South African Constitutional Court has been placed right here as a symbol of the protection of citizens’ rights.
The Old Fort is a place in Johannesburg that is situated as an area behind distinctive grass ramparts. The site was built as a prison in 1893 at the initiative of President Paul Kruger. It happened in early Johannesburg, and it happened to house criminals in the mining community that had sprung up in the area.
After the so-called Jameson Raid in 1896, when England tried to overthrow the sitting Boer government, the prison was set up as a fort in 1896. The Boer government expanded the fort in 1896-1899 to protect the country against an invasion threat from the English side, but it fell in 1900 under The Second Boer War and came into English hands. After the war, the English again turned the fort into a prison, and Boer leaders were stationed here.
The original prison in The Old Fort was expanded with the Women’s Jail and Number Four. The prison was in operation until 1983, and over the years there were several prominent prisoners here. The prison within the fort’s old walls was a prison for white prisoners, but Nelson Mandela was incarcerated here in 1956 as the only black prisoner. The reason was that he was considered too dangerous to deploy among black prisoners whom he could influence. Mandela returned to prison after another arrest in 1962.
There were also many others in different parts of the prison. Mahatma Gandhi, Joe Slovo and Albertina Sisulu are other examples of prominent prisoners. Today you can see both the old fort area and the other parts of the prison, as well as some of the places where the inmates sat.
Constitution Hill and The Old Fort are now set up as a museum, where you get a perspective on the history of captivity, oppression, freedom and the importance of the constitution for South Africa. A visit here gives an interesting insight into many aspects of the country’s recent history.
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The Nelson Mandela National Museum is a museum that is also known by the name Mandela House. It is located in Orlando West in the district of Soweto, where the later South African president Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962. Mandela owned the house until 1997, when he donated it to a cultural and historical foundation in Soweto with the aim of setting up a museum here.
The modest Mandela House was built as a small redstone house in 1945, and as a museum it contains parts of Mandela’s original furnishings, photographs and various effects in relation to Nelson Mandela. A visitor center has been built at the house itself, and a visit to number 8115, which the house bears, gives a good insight into Nelson Mandela’s time and the path towards change in South Africa at the end of the 20th century.
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Nelson Mandela Square is a modern urban space located in the Sandton district north of the historic center of Johannesburg. Sandton’s history began in 1906 when a German family built Driefontein Farmhouse as their new home. Today Sandton is part of Johannesburg, but the district still has its own business district with high-rise buildings, office buildings and shopping malls.
Nelson Mandela Square is located as part of downtown Sandton. It is a square that was originally called Santon Square, but which changed to its current name in 2004, when a six-metre tall statue of Nelson Mandela was erected in the square.
Sandton Square was laid out in 1994 with old European squares as models. Among other things, the square was modeled after St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, and the atmosphere today can easily compete with many squares in Europe. With the name change to Nelson Mandela Square, the square was named after the former president and the shopping center behind the statue of Mandela.
The shopping center Nelson Mandela Square and the nearby Sandton City form one of the largest shopping opportunities in all of Africa with several hundred stores.
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MuseuMAfricA is a historical museum founded in 1933 when the Johannesburg Public Library acquired a large collection of books and effects from various African cultures. The aim of the institution was to quickly convey all aspects of South African cultural history, and today you can experience exciting exhibitions within various themes and from large parts of Africa.
The museum is located in the district of Newtown’s former fruit and vegetable market, which was built in 1913. When you visit MuseuMAfricA you can see, among other things, the permanent exhibition which depicts South Africa’s ethnic groups and diverse cultural history. You can also get an interesting insight into Johannesburg’s history in a special exhibition that conveys the city’s history and rapid development.
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Johannesburg’s Art Gallery is a major art museum founded in 1910, which has since grown to be among the largest of its kind in the country. When you get to the museum in Joubert Park, you can notice the neoclassical exhibition building, which was completed in 1915 according to Edward Lutyen’s designs.
The museum’s collections contain, among other things, works by famous South African and international painters, and there is great variety in the art exhibited in the place’s many halls. For example, you can experience Dutch 17th-century art, British and European art from the 18th-19th centuries and South African works from the 19th century. There is also a collection of art from the 20th century to the present day in the exhibitions.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral is Johannesburg’s Anglican cathedral. However, the history of the cathedral already started in 1887, when John Darragh was appointed as the first priest of the church. A piece of land was then acquired where the Chapel of Saint John Chrysostom was built.
However, several decades of great growth in Johannesburg passed before the construction of Saint Mary’s Cathedral began. In 1921, the Chapel of All Souls was built, and the foundation stone for the cathedral itself was laid in 1926. The consecration took place on 29 September 1929.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral became known throughout the 20th century as one of the few churches in Johannesburg that was not racially segregated. Thereby, the church acted as part of the showdown against apartheid in South Africa, and in 1975 Desmond Tutu was appointed the cathedral’s first black dean.
The cathedral is a remarkable church, which you immediately see when you enter the church room and see the design, which was created by F.L.H. Fleming and Herbert Baker. Among other things, you can see three chapels in the church, which are dedicated to John Chrysostom, the Holy Spirit and All Souls. All Souls Chapel was established in memory of South Africans who fell in the battles of the First World War.
Perhaps the most well-known object in the cathedral, however, is the large crucifix that hangs from the ceiling and which dominates the impression around the altar. The crucifix was installed in 1957, and you can also notice the beautiful canopy over the main altar.
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The Carlton Center is a 223 meter high skyscraper, built 1967-1974 as the tallest hotel and office building in the Southern Hemisphere. In doing so, the high-rise was of course also the tallest building of this type in South Africa and Johannesburg, where it was only surpassed in 2019, when The Leonardo with a height of 234 meters was completed.
For many years there was a luxury hotel over 30 floors in the high-rise, where the top floor was called the Carlton Panorama, nicknamed Top of Africa. With the general decay of downtown Johannesburg in the 1990s, the hotel closed in 1998.
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The University of the Witwatersrand is Johannesburg’s large and traditional university. The institution was not originally founded in Johannesburg, but in the city of Kimberley. It happened in 1896 with the name South African School of Mines. In 1904 the school moved to Johannesburg and changed its name to ransvaal Technical Institute.
After several name changes, the school achieved academic status as a university in 1922, when it was called the University of the Witwatersrand. On the same occasion, the Johannesburg City Council donated an area in Braamfontein in the northern part of the city center to construct new buildings. It eventually became the current East Campus.
In the East Campus you can see the university’s best-known building, the Great Hall, which, among other things, forms the setting for ceremonies at graduations from the school. The Great Hall was built from 1922 and inaugurated in 1925 by the English Crown Prince Edward. You can also visit university museums such as the Wits Art Museum, where you can see a fine art collection.
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Johannesburg City Hall is the city’s town hall, and it stands in central Johannesburg as one of the city’s most distinctive buildings from the city’s early years. The town hall’s history began in 1909, when an architectural competition was held to design the city’s new town hall. Only South Africans could enter the competition, and Hawke and McKinlay from Cape Town were chosen as the winners.
Construction of the Johannesburg City Hall started in 1913 and the City Hall was completed the following year. The dedication took place in 1915. Johannesburg grew significantly in the following years, and so did the city’s administration. This meant that in 1937 the town hall tower was demolished in order to rebuild it after an extension with an extra floor on the 1915 building.
The town hall was built in Edwardian Baroque with a portico of Ionic columns. It stands as one of the most remarkable buildings of its time, and the interior decoration is impressive in the town hall’s many halls and stairwells. As something special, the southern hemisphere’s largest organ was installed in the town hall building.
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The Johannesburg City Library is one of the large and stately public buildings in downtown Johannesburg. The library was built in 1935 in a typical Italianate architecture. It was a widespread style in the English-speaking world, combining elements of the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century with romantic ideals of creating beauty.
The library in Johannesburg opened as early as 1890, when a batch of books ordered from London had arrived. The library got its first independent building three years later when it moved into The Old Church Building, and it became an institution with growth and support from the city government in the following decades leading up to the opening of the Johannesburg City Library’s current main building, designed by John Perry.
John Perry was an architect from Cape Town who won the competition for Johannesburg’s new library building. The library’s distinguishing feature is the three impressive arches on the facade, which faces Beyers Naude Square. On the entrance doors you can see the monograms LJ and BJ, which stand for Library of Johannesburg and Biblioteek Johannesburg respectively.
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Hillbrow Tower is a telecommunications tower that was built in the years 1968-1971 in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow. The tower was first named after the country’s former prime minister J.G. Strijdom, and later had different names. Hillbrow Tower is 269 meters high and was Africa’s tallest building until 2021, when the Iconic Tower in Cairo surpassed the tower’s height.
The tower opened with six floors in the heights, where there were observation decks, restaurants and bars. Among other things, you could visit Heinrich’s Revolving Restaurant and the Cloud 9 discotheque. The Obervation deck was at a height of 197 metres, but unfortunately Hillbrow Tower closed to visitors in 1981 for safety reasons. Before its closure, the tower was one of the most visited places in Johannesburg.
Hillbrow Tower is still a prominent feature of the Johannesburg skyline, where you can also see another communications tower. In the suburb of Brixton, Brixton Tower was built in 1961-1962 with a height of 237 metres. In this tower there was also an observation deck with a panoramic view of Johannesburg, but it had to close for safety reasons in 1982.
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The Apartheid Museum is a museum in Johannesburg that opened in 2001. It is a museum that depicts the 1900s South African history of the introduction, enforcement and dismantling of apartheid. There are many depictions and effects in the exhibitions that give an interesting insight into the times.
At the museum, you can see the Pillars of the Constitution, which symbolize the seven values ​​on which the South African constitution is based. The pillars thereby stand for democracy, equality, reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom. At the entrance to the museum, you can see one of several examples of racial segregation during the apartheid years.
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Soweto is a well-known name in Johannesburg and South Africa. Soweto is a suburb of Johannesburg, and the name is an abbreviation of South Western Townships, which as the name suggests spans a number of suburbs such as Orlando, Klipspruit, Meadowlands and Dobsonville. Soweto spreads over quite a large area, and there are several things to see in the district.
Soweto’s most famous place is the Nelson Mandela National Museum, also known as the Nelson Mandela House. The house with the number 8115 was the residence of the later president for many years. A few houses away is Tutu House, where Desmond Tutu moved in in 1975. The Hector Pieterson Memorial, a memorial to Hector Pieterson and others who lost their lives during the Soweto uprisings, is also near Mandela House.
Most visitors to Soweto come here on an organized tour, and they also see other parts of the township. This applies, for example, to the Regina Mundi Church and Soweto’s two large cooling towers, which are brightly painted and advertised as a landmark for the area. The cooling towers were built as part of the Orlando Power Station, which opened in 1942 and closed in 1998.
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The Hector Pieterson Museum is a museum located in Orlando West in the Soweto district. The location of the museum is close to where Hector Pieterson was shot on 16 June 1978 in connection with the Soweto uprising against the South African government at the time.
The museum opened in 2002 as one of the first in Soweto, and the museum’s collections and exhibitions describe the events that took place in Johannesburg during the Soweto uprising, and there is naturally a focus on Hector Pieterson and the others who lost their lives during the uprising.
Pretoria is known as the capital of South Africa; a status it shares with both Cape Town and Bloemfontein. The city is beautifully situated on the river Apies and at the foot of the Magaliesberg ridges, and it attracts many tourists every year.
Pretoria is named after pioneer Andries Pretorius, and it is a city with a lot of fine sights. One of the highlights is the political center, the governmental body with the impressive Union Buildings. You should also se the great Voortrekker Monument and the many preserved buildings from Pretoria’s earlier history.
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Lion & Safari Park is a nature and animal park located in the Cradle of Humankind area. The park was originally a species protection site for lions, but there are also many other animals in the park today. Lion & Safari was established in the current location in 2016 and the park is 600 hectares.
In the Lion & Safari Park you can get close to much of Africa’s exciting wildlife. This applies not least to some of the approximately 80 lions that live here, but you can also experience leopards, hyenas, caracals and more. A large area has also been created where some of the more peaceful animals such as giraffes, zebras and antelopes are found.
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Sun City is a fantastic entertainment area in the middle of the South African nature. It is a luxury resort with, among other things, luxury hotels, golf courses, casinos and fantastic baths at the Palace of the Lost City hotel. Sun City is also on the border with Pilanesberg National Park, so there are also great opportunities for trips there.
Sun City was inaugurated in 1979 in the state of Bophuthatswana, which the then South African government nominally considered an independent state. This meant that Sun City could, for example, offer gambling and other things that were prohibited in South Africa. Throughout the 1980s, many famous artists gave concerts in Sun City, which was a popular resort.
Today you can visit the beautiful resort, where there are several wonderful hotels and splendid surroundings in the South African nature and on Sun City’s golf courses. The resort itself and the hotels are also an experience like palaces in the jungle.
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The Cradle of Humankind is the name of an area of ​​474 km² where hundreds of remains from early human activity have been found. For example, fossils and stone tools have been found in the area’s limestone caves, and the historically very interesting area is today included on UNESCO’s world heritage list.
It was Robert Broom who found the first ape-man fossil. He did so in 1935 at Sterkfontein, and the large cave area at Sterkfontein is central to a visit to the Cradle of Humankind. Since the first discovery, fossils have been found in more than 30 caves during excavations.
If you want to visit the Cradle of Humankind, the Maropeng Visitor Center is the right place to start. Here you get information about the caves, the excavations and the discoveries that have taken place over the years, and from here you can also go on trips to Sterkfortein’s limestone caves.
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Pilanesberg National Park is a national park where you can experience the beautiful South African nature and much of the country’s rich wildlife. The national park is located around an extinct volcano with a great variety in terrain and nature. The name Pilanesberg comes from Chief Pilane of the Kgafêla tribe. Pilane ruled from Bogopane in the 19th century.
The national park has a size of 572 km², and there are many kilometers of road which cross the park and which give access to many beautiful views and look at Pilanesberg’s many animals. You may be lucky enough to see the so-called Big Five of Africa’s animals, which include the elephant, leopard, lion, rhinoceros and water buffalo. There are also antelopes, zabras, kudus, giraffes and many other animals in the park. In addition, there are over 300 different kinds of birds.
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Cullinan Diamond Mine is an active diamond mine located in the town of Cullinan. The mine was founded in 1902, and for many years it was known as the Premier Mine. Geologically, the mine is a former volcanic crater tube that is a feeding channel to a volcano. It can also be called a kimberlite pipe, which is mined from several in, among other places, South Africa and Russia due to the pipes’ diamond content.
The Cullinan diamond mine became famous in 1905 when the world’s largest diamond was found by Frederick Wells and named The Cullinan Diamond. The rough diamond weighed 3,106.75 carats, which corresponds to 621.35 grams. 105 gemstones were later cut out of the diamond. The largest is called Cullinan I, and it sits in the British sceptre.
You can visit the Cullinan Diamond Mine on organized tours where you experience the mine from the surface. There is also a visitor center where you can see, among other things, a replica of a mining tunnel and replicas of some of the world’s most famous diamonds. You can also see the famous Cullinan Big Hole from a vantage point at the mine.
Christiaan de Wet Road/Hendrik Potgieter Drive
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Beyers Naude Drive
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Bradford Road
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60 Riviera Road
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38-60 Lilian Ngoyi St, Fordsburg
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Sandton Drive/Rivonia Road
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Around Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Church Street Mall, Narrow Street Mall
Gold Reef City
Xavier Road, Ormonde
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Johannesburg Zoo
Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown
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Lion & Safari Park
R512 Pelindaba Rd, Hartbeespoort, Broederstroom
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National Zoological Gardens
Boom Street, Pretoria
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The Johannesburg area has been inhabited for millions of years, but despite the current size of the city, Johannesburg is a very young city. In the 19th century, many farmer farmers came and they cultivated large parts of the countryside. This was not least after the migration from Cape Town to the inland in 1836. However, the Boers did not establish an actual city at that time.
Australian George Harrison found gold here in 1886, and it was the start of a very hectic gold fever. Pretoria to the north sent officials Johann Rissik and Johannes Joubert to the area of ​​the gold finds, and they chose the site for the establishment of Johannesburg, which was subsequently named after them. The first gold was found in Barberton, but even richer deposits were soon after excavated in Witwatersrand.
The gold brought lots of migrants from other parts of southern Africa, but also from Europe and North America, and after just five years, Johannesburg was South Africa’s largest city. The economically very interesting area was the subject of tension between the Dutch Africans and the British. It resulted in the Second Boer War, in which Britain won the dominion over this part of South Africa as well.
After the establishment of the South African Union in 1910, regulations for non-Europeans were introduced in Johannesburg and in the Transvaal region. Among other things, special residential areas were established for them, such as Soweto, which seriously developed from the 1940s.
Based on the wealth of gold mines, Johannesburg developed a large industrial production in the first half of the 20th century and a number of cultural institutions were established. The many jobs in both the mines and the industry constantly attracted more blacks from poor rural areas, and the city’s black districts gradually became overcrowded and quite slack.
Johannesburg’s central business district opened up, and there were many international hotels, skyscrapers and entertainment venues for the many wealthy white and traveling business people. The white neighborhoods of the metropolis were modern as a European or North American city, while the poor black districts merely continued its somewhat unstructured growth. Political pressure increased on the white rule introduced with the 1948 National Party election victory.Â
In 1976, armed riots broke out in Soweto, resulting in 12 months of riots that were wiped out, but which nevertheless added extra fuel to the black opposition’s struggle for influence in the country. After several unrest, the political structure of the country changed in 1990, with the South African president allowing all political organizations and printing presidential elections until 1994, when Soweto’s Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president.
The political system change had major consequences for Johannesburg. Many blacks moved into the central business district where the established financial sector of the country was located. Companies and the stock exchange, for example, moved to new areas in the suburban area, mainly Sandton, to the north. Hotels were closing and moving, and the city’s central part had changed radically in a few years. Today, much has been done to restore the attractiveness of the Johannesburg Center to investors and tourists alike.
Overview of Johannesburg
The metropolis of Johannesburg is the economic locomotive of southern Africa and one of the continent’s major cities. The city is the largest in South Africa and consists almost of two city centers, the old town center and the modern Sandton, where large shopping centers and modern buildings prevail.
The old town center has its sights. This is where the city was developed after the foundation, and a lot of its history can be seen here. The sights are large public institutions, high-rise buildings, museums, etc. This is also where the city’s main railway station and other important functions are located.
About the upcoming Johannesburg travel guide
About the travel guide
The Johannesburg 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.
Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg 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.
Constitution Hill • Mandela Square • Soweto • Sandton • Downtown
Overview of Johannesburg
The metropolis of Johannesburg is the economic locomotive of southern Africa and one of the continent’s major cities. The city is the largest in South Africa and consists almost of two city centers, the old town center and the modern Sandton, where large shopping centers and modern buildings prevail.
The old town center has its sights. This is where the city was developed after the foundation, and a lot of its history can be seen here. The sights are large public institutions, high-rise buildings, museums, etc. This is also where the city’s main railway station and other important functions are located.
About the upcoming Johannesburg travel guide
About the travel guide
The Johannesburg 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.
Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg 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.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral is Johannesburg’s Anglican cathedral. However, the history of the cathedral already started in 1887, when John Darragh was appointed as the first priest of the church. A piece of land was then acquired where the Chapel of Saint John Chrysostom was built.
However, several decades of great growth in Johannesburg passed before the construction of Saint Mary’s Cathedral began. In 1921, the Chapel of All Souls was built, and the foundation stone for the cathedral itself was laid in 1926. The consecration took place on 29 September 1929.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral became known throughout the 20th century as one of the few churches in Johannesburg that was not racially segregated. Thereby, the church acted as part of the showdown against apartheid in South Africa, and in 1975 Desmond Tutu was appointed the cathedral’s first black dean.
The cathedral is a remarkable church, which you immediately see when you enter the church room and see the design, which was created by F.L.H. Fleming and Herbert Baker. Among other things, you can see three chapels in the church, which are dedicated to John Chrysostom, the Holy Spirit and All Souls. All Souls Chapel was established in memory of South Africans who fell in the battles of the First World War.
Perhaps the most well-known object in the cathedral, however, is the large crucifix that hangs from the ceiling and which dominates the impression around the altar. The crucifix was installed in 1957, and you can also notice the beautiful canopy over the main altar.
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The Carlton Center is a 223 meter high skyscraper, built 1967-1974 as the tallest hotel and office building in the Southern Hemisphere. In doing so, the high-rise was of course also the tallest building of this type in South Africa and Johannesburg, where it was only surpassed in 2019, when The Leonardo with a height of 234 meters was completed.
For many years there was a luxury hotel over 30 floors in the high-rise, where the top floor was called the Carlton Panorama, nicknamed Top of Africa. With the general decay of downtown Johannesburg in the 1990s, the hotel closed in 1998.
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The University of the Witwatersrand is Johannesburg’s large and traditional university. The institution was not originally founded in Johannesburg, but in the city of Kimberley. It happened in 1896 with the name South African School of Mines. In 1904 the school moved to Johannesburg and changed its name to ransvaal Technical Institute.
After several name changes, the school achieved academic status as a university in 1922, when it was called the University of the Witwatersrand. On the same occasion, the Johannesburg City Council donated an area in Braamfontein in the northern part of the city center to construct new buildings. It eventually became the current East Campus.
In the East Campus you can see the university’s best-known building, the Great Hall, which, among other things, forms the setting for ceremonies at graduations from the school. The Great Hall was built from 1922 and inaugurated in 1925 by the English Crown Prince Edward. You can also visit university museums such as the Wits Art Museum, where you can see a fine art collection.
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Johannesburg City Hall is the city’s town hall, and it stands in central Johannesburg as one of the city’s most distinctive buildings from the city’s early years. The town hall’s history began in 1909, when an architectural competition was held to design the city’s new town hall. Only South Africans could enter the competition, and Hawke and McKinlay from Cape Town were chosen as the winners.
Construction of the Johannesburg City Hall started in 1913 and the City Hall was completed the following year. The dedication took place in 1915. Johannesburg grew significantly in the following years, and so did the city’s administration. This meant that in 1937 the town hall tower was demolished in order to rebuild it after an extension with an extra floor on the 1915 building.
The town hall was built in Edwardian Baroque with a portico of Ionic columns. It stands as one of the most remarkable buildings of its time, and the interior decoration is impressive in the town hall’s many halls and stairwells. As something special, the southern hemisphere’s largest organ was installed in the town hall building.
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The Johannesburg City Library is one of the large and stately public buildings in downtown Johannesburg. The library was built in 1935 in a typical Italianate architecture. It was a widespread style in the English-speaking world, combining elements of the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century with romantic ideals of creating beauty.
The library in Johannesburg opened as early as 1890, when a batch of books ordered from London had arrived. The library got its first independent building three years later when it moved into The Old Church Building, and it became an institution with growth and support from the city government in the following decades leading up to the opening of the Johannesburg City Library’s current main building, designed by John Perry.
John Perry was an architect from Cape Town who won the competition for Johannesburg’s new library building. The library’s distinguishing feature is the three impressive arches on the facade, which faces Beyers Naude Square. On the entrance doors you can see the monograms LJ and BJ, which stand for Library of Johannesburg and Biblioteek Johannesburg respectively.
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Hillbrow Tower is a telecommunications tower that was built in the years 1968-1971 in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow. The tower was first named after the country’s former prime minister J.G. Strijdom, and later had different names. Hillbrow Tower is 269 meters high and was Africa’s tallest building until 2021, when the Iconic Tower in Cairo surpassed the tower’s height.
The tower opened with six floors in the heights, where there were observation decks, restaurants and bars. Among other things, you could visit Heinrich’s Revolving Restaurant and the Cloud 9 discotheque. The Obervation deck was at a height of 197 metres, but unfortunately Hillbrow Tower closed to visitors in 1981 for safety reasons. Before its closure, the tower was one of the most visited places in Johannesburg.
Hillbrow Tower is still a prominent feature of the Johannesburg skyline, where you can also see another communications tower. In the suburb of Brixton, Brixton Tower was built in 1961-1962 with a height of 237 metres. In this tower there was also an observation deck with a panoramic view of Johannesburg, but it had to close for safety reasons in 1982.
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The Apartheid Museum is a museum in Johannesburg that opened in 2001. It is a museum that depicts the 1900s South African history of the introduction, enforcement and dismantling of apartheid. There are many depictions and effects in the exhibitions that give an interesting insight into the times.
At the museum, you can see the Pillars of the Constitution, which symbolize the seven values ​​on which the South African constitution is based. The pillars thereby stand for democracy, equality, reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom. At the entrance to the museum, you can see one of several examples of racial segregation during the apartheid years.
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Soweto is a well-known name in Johannesburg and South Africa. Soweto is a suburb of Johannesburg, and the name is an abbreviation of South Western Townships, which as the name suggests spans a number of suburbs such as Orlando, Klipspruit, Meadowlands and Dobsonville. Soweto spreads over quite a large area, and there are several things to see in the district.
Soweto’s most famous place is the Nelson Mandela National Museum, also known as the Nelson Mandela House. The house with the number 8115 was the residence of the later president for many years. A few houses away is Tutu House, where Desmond Tutu moved in in 1975. The Hector Pieterson Memorial, a memorial to Hector Pieterson and others who lost their lives during the Soweto uprisings, is also near Mandela House.
Most visitors to Soweto come here on an organized tour, and they also see other parts of the township. This applies, for example, to the Regina Mundi Church and Soweto’s two large cooling towers, which are brightly painted and advertised as a landmark for the area. The cooling towers were built as part of the Orlando Power Station, which opened in 1942 and closed in 1998.
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The Hector Pieterson Museum is a museum located in Orlando West in the Soweto district. The location of the museum is close to where Hector Pieterson was shot on 16 June 1978 in connection with the Soweto uprising against the South African government at the time.
The museum opened in 2002 as one of the first in Soweto, and the museum’s collections and exhibitions describe the events that took place in Johannesburg during the Soweto uprising, and there is naturally a focus on Hector Pieterson and the others who lost their lives during the uprising.
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