Slave Lodge and Remembrance

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…

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…

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,…

The Groote Kerk in Cape Town features a massive, unadorned white facade and a distinctively tall, square tower that dominates the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets. Completed in eighteen forty-one, this is the oldest church building in…

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…

The Company’s Garden features a long, straight central path lined with towering oak trees that divide the city center. Jan van Riebeeck started this plot in sixteen fifty-two to grow fresh produce for the Dutch East India Company ships…

The Auwal Masjid in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood features a simple, whitewashed exterior and a small, understated minaret. Established in seventeen ninety-four, it is the first mosque built in South Africa. Tuan Guru, a political exile from…

The Bo-Kaap Museum occupies a house built in seventeen sixty-eight, identifiable by its bright teal exterior and the classic Cape Dutch gable facing the street. It was once the home of Abu Bakr Effendi, a scholar sent from the Ottoman…