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Cape Town Castle of Good Hope information
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Castle of Good Hope is the oldest surviving building in South Africa.
Built between 1666 and 1679, this pentagonal fortification replaced
a small fort of timber and clay built by Commander Jan van Riebeeck
in 1652 upon establishing a maritime replenishment station at the
Cape of Good Hope for the Dutch East Indian Company or better known
as the VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) On
26 April 1679 the five bastions were named after the main titles
of Willem, the Prince of Orange. The Western Bastion was named Leerdam;
followed in clockwise order by Buren, Katzenellenbogen, Nassau,
and Oranje. In 1936 the Castle was declared a National Monument.
As a result of an extensive, ongoing restoration and conservation
program launched in the 1980's, the Castle of Good Hope remains
the best preserved of its kind built by the VOC in regions where
it had interests in previous centuries.Today, the Castle of Good
Hope houses the regional headquarters of the South African Army
in the Western Cape, the famous William Fehr Collection of historic
artworks, the Castle Military Museum and ceremonial facilities for
traditional Cape Regiments. |
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