Castle and Grand Parade Walk

The Castle of Good Hope remains the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa, defined by its stark, yellow-ochre pentagonal walls. Built between sixteen sixty-six and sixteen seventy-nine, the fortress replaced an earlier wooden…

The Grand Parade is a vast, open expanse of asphalt stretching out in front of Cape Town City Hall. It began as a simple parade ground for the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century. In nineteen ninety, Nelson Mandela stood on…

Cape Town City Hall sits at the edge of the Grand Parade, defined by its honey-colored oolitic limestone facade and a central clock tower modeled after Big Ben. Completed in nineteen oh five, the building was the result of an international…

The District Six Museum occupies the former Buitenkant Street Methodist Church, which stands out with its bright red front door and a facade painted with the names of families once forced from their homes. During the nineteen seventies,…

A single, low-hanging metal plaque sits embedded in the brickwork near the corner of Church and Spin Streets. This spot marks the location of an oak tree that stood here for over two centuries. In the years of the Dutch East India Company,…

Church Square sits anchored by the Groote Kerk, its high, white gabled facade rising above the rest of the greenery. This plot served as the slave burial ground for the Dutch East India Company during the eighteenth century. In eighteen…

The Iziko Slave Lodge stands as the oldest building in Cape Town, distinguishable by its distinct yellow facade and the heavy iron bars remaining on the ground-floor windows. Built by the Dutch East India Company in the late sixteen…