The statue was donated by Cecil Rhodes to the city of Cape Town. He paid the Scottish sculptor John Tweed £1,000 for the work, partly on the condition that the statue not show Tweed's name and be larger than life-size. The statue lies on a Cape granite pedestal 4¼ m high designed by an architect friend of Tweed's. This further inflated the cost.
On 18 May 1899, Cape Town Mayor Thomas Ball unveiled the bronze statue in the presence of the entire City Council, national politicians, and members of the public, but in the absence of Rhodes, then sojourning in Europe.
Rhodes chose to situate the statue where Van Riebeeck set foot ashore. Due to the development of the harbour and the city's growth, the statue has been overshadowed by skyscrapers. Over time, a large roundabout was developed at the site, once called Heerengracht, and in 1969, a statue of Maria van Riebeeck was laid to the right of her husband's.
There is no image that can be said to certainly depict the founder of the Cape refreshment station. In the statue, Van Riebeeck's sword is sheathed, and he carries his walking stick in his right hand. The dress in the statue is historically inaccurate. Overhanging shoulder straps were out of fashion in the mid-17th century, and knee breeches and the jacker Van Riebeeck is wearing only became popular after his departure for Java. Hat feathers were in fashion, but are missing in the statue.
Each year on 6 April, Founders Day, wreaths were laid at the statues of Jan and Maria van Riebeeck.
In his poem, "Oor monnemente gepraat" ("speaking of monuments"), Peter Blum writes:
here is Jan van Riebeeck, very handsome in his plus fours; ....
In Van Riebeeck's birthplace of Culemborg is a bust of Van Riebeeck, donated by the Cape Town City Council.
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It involved 500 British South Africa Company police launched from Rhodesia over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger, for whom Rhodes had great personal hatred, was president of the South African Republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in the Transvaal but it failed. The workers were referred to as The Johannesburg Conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection; however, the raid was ineffective, and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassment of the British government; the replacement of Cecil Rhodes as prime minister of the Cape Colony; and the strengthening of Boer dominance of the Transvaal and its gold mines. The raid was a contributory cause of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).
Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company.
Paarl is a town with 285,574 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington. It is situated about 60 kilometres (37 mi) northeast of Cape Town in the Western Cape Province and is known for its scenic environment and viticulture and fruit-growing heritage.
Maria van Riebeeck was a French Huguenot who was the first wife of Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch colonial administrator and first commander of the settlement at the Cape.
Devil's Peak is part of the mountainous backdrop to Cape Town, South Africa. When looking at Table Mountain from the city centre, or when looking at the standard picture postcard view of the mountain, the skyline is from left to right: the spire of Devil's Peak, the flat mesa of Table Mountain, the dome of Lion's Head and Signal Hill.
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about 110 kilometres (70 mi) northeast of Gqeberha and 130 kilometres (80 mi) southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, the South African Library for the Blind (SALB), a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and 6 South African Infantry Battalion. Furthermore, located approximately 3 km south-east of the town lies the world renowned Waterloo Farm, the only estuarine fossil site in the world from 360 million years ago with exceptional soft-tissue preservation.
De Tuynhuys is the office of the president of South Africa, located in Cape Town.
The area known today as Cape Town has no written history before it was first mentioned by Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias in 1488. The German anthropologist Theophilus Hahn recorded that the original name of the area was '||Hui !Gais' – a toponym in the indigenous Khoe language meaning "where clouds gather."
The coat of arms of Cape Town is the traditional symbol of the municipality of Cape Town. The original arms from the 20th century are no longer in official use, though no new arms have yet been adopted.
The Van Riebeeck Decoration, post-nominal letters DVR, is a South African military decoration for bravery which was instituted by the Union of South Africa in 1952. It was awarded to officers for distinguished service in the field.
The Van Riebeeck Medal, post-nominal letters VRM, is a military decoration for bravery which was instituted by the Union of South Africa in 1952. It was awarded to other ranks for distinguished service in the field.
Gardens is an inner-city suburb of Cape Town located just to the south of the city centre located in the higher elevations of the "City Bowl" and directly beneath Table Mountain and Lion's Head. It is an affluent neighbourhood populated mostly by young professionals and contains numerous chic restaurants, hotels, boutique shops and loft apartments. The suburb is also a hub for the Cape Town creative industry, home to e.tv at Longkloof Studios and many modelling agencies, production and publishing companies and associated industries.
Hoërskool Jan van Riebieck is a public co-educational high school situated in Gardens in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was founded in 1926 by J.J. Jordaan and educates in both Afrikaans and English language.
The Fort de Goede Hoop was the first military building to be erected in what is now Cape Town. It was built in 1652, and was in use until 1674 when it was superseded by the Castle of Good Hope.
The Company's Garden is the oldest garden in South Africa, a park and heritage site located in central Cape Town. The garden was originally created in the 1650s by the region's first European settlers and provided fertile ground to grow fresh produce to replenish ships rounding the Cape. It is watered from the Molteno Dam, which uses water from the springs on the lower slopes of Table Mountain.
The Cecil John Rhodes Statue is a monument erected at Company's Garden in Cape Town. The statue was erected in 1908. It features a full body replica of Cecil Rhodes wearing a three-piece suit, standing with his left hand raised and pointing north. It has been compared to the Jan van Riebeeck statue, which faces south and asserts a different sense of occupation. Despite its size, the present location of the monument in the Company's Garden makes it less significant in comparison to that of Jan Smuts at Adderley Street, Cape Town, a location that had been considered for the placement of the Rhodes statue.
Olof Godlieb de Wet (1739–1811) was a South African high-ranking official in the Dutch East India Company and co-founder of the Freemasons in South Africa.
There are at least three statues of Bartolomeu Dias, the first European to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa. This exploration, in 1488, led to the discovery of a sea route from Europe to Asia.
A statue of Maria van Riebeeck stands alongside that of her husband, Jan van Riebeeck, in a roundabout on Heerengracht Street in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Linden Reformed Church was a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in the northwestern Johannesburg suburb of Linden. On July 1, 2018, it merged with the Aasvoëlkop Reformed Church to form the Aan die Berg Reformed Church.
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