Village Museum | |
Established | 23 March 1962 |
---|---|
Location | 18 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa |
Coordinates | 33°56′15″S18°51′46″E / 33.9374°S 18.8629°E |
Type | Cultural history museum |
Curator | Debbie Gabriels (Museum manager) |
Owner | Board of Trustees |
Nearest car park | The Avenue, in front of Agricultural Hall |
Website | Official website |
Stellenbosch Museum is a cultural history museum in the centre of Stellenbosch, South Africa. It was proclaimed a museum on 23 March 1962, and is a province-aided museum which receives support from the Government of the Western Cape. The museum includes four period houses which depict the way people lived and the difference in architectural styles over the periods illustrated (the Village Museum). It also includes a historical powder magazine and a toy museum.
The Schreuder House is the first period house in the museum complex and is furnished according to the period c. 1709. The house was built in August 1707 by Sebastian Schreuder, who was a German messenger of the court of the Dutch East India Company. [1] It is a pioneer cottage with a thatched roof and clay floor. Because window glass had to be imported from Holland, the windows are made of linen or gauze stretched over a frame with beeswax to seal the cloth against the elements. During a hard downpour, the housewife simply closed the outside shutters; in fine weather the catches were released, the whole frame was lifted out, and fresh air was let in. [2] The house was declared a monument in 1974, and is currently listed as a Grade II Western Cape provincial heritage site. [3]
The Bleterman House in the museum complex depicts the period of c. 1789. The house was built by Hendrik Lodewyk Bletterman, Landdrost (Magistrate) of Stellenbosch from 1785 to 1795. This dwelling is a Cape Dutch H-shaped house and an examples of a gabled house from the 18th century. [4] The site on which Bletterman House is situated was purchased by Hendrik Lodewyk Bletterman in 1787. Since the Hertzog plan of 1817 shows a building on this site, it is assumed that Bletterman built the house sometime before that date. After his death in 1824, the house was sold to the Landdrost and Heemraden, and was converted into offices and a courtroom, becoming the "Stellenbosch Public Offices". The outbuilding was renovated and equipped with 50 school benches and served as a school for slaves. The school was officially opened in September 1825,with Erasmus Smit as teacher. There is no record that the main house was ever used as a residence after Bletterman's death. The Stellenbosch Police used the buildings as their headquarters from about 1879–1969 when it was acquired by the Stellenbosch Museum. [5] The house is listed as a provincial heritage site. [6]
The Grosvenor House is a mansion that depicts the period c. 1803, and is the ancestral home of the Neethling family. The site on which it stands was granted to Christiaan Ludolph Neethling in 1781, and a year later he had built a double-storey house on the property. Successive owners kept the house virtually unaltered. In 1872, Sir Christoffel J. Brand, first speaker of the Cape House of Assembly, became the new owner. After his death in 1876, William Collins of Bath, England, bought the property and it remained in the possession of his wife until 1941. The Collins family named the building Grosvenor House and converted it into a guest house. [7]
Grosvenor House was the building in which the Stellenbosch Museum was located at the time of its proclamation. The building has been restored to illustrate the period c. 1800–c. 1830 when Willem Herold and his familyWillem Herold and his family[ clarification needed ]. The house has been declared a provincial heritage site. [8]
Individual items of furniture reflect the increasing influence of English taste on local furniture design after the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806 when Neoclassicism was in fashion. The interior doors have stinkwood frames and yellowwood panels. There are unusual shutters of the same wood and a heavy front door of solid teak. The facade of the house was designed in the classical style with fluted pilasters running up to support a wide cornice. The classicism is repeated in the treatment of the pedimented front door, which surrounds a plasterwork palm tree, the symbol on the Stellenbosch Church seal.
The plants in the garden of this house are those that would have been popular during the period.
This Victorian house (now a provincial heritage site [9] ) was first owned by Christiaan Krynauw who is presumed to have erected a new T-shaped dwelling on the site. Olof Marthinus Bergh bought the property in 1836. He was born in Cape Town in 1792, and was Deputy-Sheriff of Stellenbosch.
An upper storey was added to the house during the second half of the 19th century. The house is furnished to reflect the interior of a typical middle-class Stellenbosch home during the period 1840 – 1880, more-or-less the time it was occupied by Bergh and his family. Heavy mahogany furniture in the prevailing English taste was very fashionable at the time and the Victorian penchant for clutter often made it difficult to move about in the drawing room. Wallpaper and family portraits are further indications of how sombre interior decoration was at the time – particularly after the Great Exhibition in 1851.[ citation needed ] The garden is laid out in the style of the period with roses and other shrubs that were popular during the mid-19th century.
In the turbulent last quarter of the eighteenth century, the Governor and the Political Council at Cape Town came to the conclusion that it was desirable to store ammunition at Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch was also allowed cannon and guns, and the gunpowder and ammunition necessary to ward off an enemy attack, and a suitable building for storing this material had to be constructed. The consent of the governing council of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) in the Netherlands was duly applied for and received, and authority was given to build the arsenal or magazine. On 7 October 1776, the Landdrost called for tenders for erection of the building. That of Philip Hartog and Lambert Fick for 9000 guilders was accepted and on 5 May 1777, the building was completed. [10]
Stellenbosch has always been a peaceful town and not once during its 300 years of existence have guns been fired as an act of war. The V.O.C. Kruithuis therefore soon lost its strategic military value and in less than seventy years became the site of the local Friday market. After serving as a market house for almost a century, it was restored by the Stellenbosch Municipality in 1936. The building was proclaimed a National Monument (now a provincial heritage site [11] ) on 10 May 1940, and in 1943, was opened to the public as a small Africana Museum.The museum did not exist for very long, and there were many years during which the building remained locked and inaccessible to the public. In 1971, the municipality agreed to allow the Stellenbosch Museum to take over the building for display of its collection of fire-arms, cannon, military uniforms, and other objects.
The V.O.C. Kruithuis is unique in South Africa as it is the only remaining powder magazine in the country dating from the days of the Dutch East India Company, and it is a symbol of the town's rich and varied architectural heritage. [12]
The Stellenbosch Museum has published the following books:
Stellenbosch is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated about 50 kilometres east of Cape Town, along the banks of the Eerste River at the foot of the Stellenbosch Mountain. The town became known as the City of Oaks or Eikestad in Afrikaans and Dutch due to the large number of oak trees that were planted by its founder, Simon van der Stel, to grace the streets and homesteads.
Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human-to-human heart transplant took place, conducted by University of Cape Town-educated surgeon Christiaan Barnard on the patient Louis Washkansky.
Swellendam is the fourth oldest town in South Africa, a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them buildings of Cape Dutch architecture. Swellendam is situated on the N2, approximately 220 km from both Cape Town and George.
Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and provincial heritage site in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa.
Cape Dutch architecture is an architectural style found mostly in the Western Cape of South Africa, but modern examples of the style have also been exported as far afield as Western Australia and New Zealand, typically on wine estates. The style was prominent in the early days of the Cape Colony, and the name derives from the initial settlers of the Cape being primarily Dutch. The style has roots in medieval Netherlands, Germany, France and Indonesia.
Provincial heritage sites in South Africa are places that are of historic or cultural importance within the context of the province concerned and which are for this reason declared in terms of Section 28 of the National Heritage Resources Act (NHRA) or legislation of the applicable province. The designation was a new one that came into effect with the introduction of the Act on 1 April 2000 when all former national monuments declared by the former National Monuments Council and its predecessors became provincial heritage sites as provided for in Section 58 of the Act.
Dutch colonial architecture refers to the various style of Dutch architecture built across the Dutch Empire. Though most of the buildings were designed by Dutch architects and dictated by Western architectural styles, even the most ardent style-purists among architects could not escape the forces of context and culture. Dutch colonial architecture often is a result of climatological adaptations or the use of local building materials - and more importantly, the rich and diverse cultural contexts. In this hybridity lies the quality of these buildings. Architecture shows that the strict racial taxonomy of a colonial system could not be maintained.
Burgersdorp is a medium-sized town in Walter Sisulu in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve is a historic estate and currently a CapeNature nature reserve and World Heritage Site situated in the Jonkershoek Valley near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The historic estate was established by Dirk Coetsee, the progenitor of the Coetsee family in South Africa.
George Museum is a cultural history museum located in the town of George, Western Cape, South Africa. It preserves the history of the town of George with a special focus on the timber industry. It also houses an art collection. The museum was started by Charles Sayers, in 1967 in a single room in Courtenay Street. The museum is now housed in the building the first magistrate, Adrian van Kervel built as the Drostdy (residency) from 1812 -1815.
The Old Buildings of the Cape is a book by Hans Fransen, subtitled in its latest edition A survey of extant architecture from before c. 1910 in the area of Cape Town–Calvinia–Colesberg–Uitenhage. It lists extant and lost buildings and structures in the Cape Province of South Africa. First published in 1965 and since updated, the book is a widely recognised desk reference on the subject.
Heritage Western Cape (HWC) is a provincial heritage resources authority established by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport of the government of the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is a public entity set up under the terms of the National Heritage Resources Act. It is mandated to care for that part of South Africa's national estate that is of provincial and local significance in the Western Cape. It may delegate responsibility for heritage resources of local significance to competent municipal governments.
Dr Mary Alexander Cook was an expert on Cape Dutch architecture and a museum curator.
Coetsenburg is an historic wine estate and one of the oldest estates in South Africa, established in 1682. It is located at the foot of the Stellenbosch Mountain, which forms part of the estate, in the town of Stellenbosch, 31 miles (50 km) east of Cape Town, in the Cape Winelands of the Western Cape Province. The estate has historically been owned by the Coetsee family and is currently not open to the public. The north-western portion of the original estate is now the Coetsenburg Sports Grounds which belongs to the University of Stellenbosch.
Dirk Coetzee/Coetsee was a Dutch colonist and the Hoofdheemraad (Chancellor) of the District of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein in South Africa for most of the 1690s and early 1700s. He also served as captain of the Stellenbosch Infantry and deacon of the Stellenbosch Moederkerk at different points in time. As captain of the Stellenbosch Infantry, which comprised mostly Huguenots, he provided military backing for a rebellion which began in 1706 against the Governor of the Cape Colony, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, whom the vrijburghers had accused of tyranny, corruption and racketeering. Coetsee was imprisoned in the dungeon of the Castle of Good Hope along with the other leaders of the Huguenots but he was released after a year. The rebellion ultimately succeeded in 1707 when the Dutch East India Company recalled the Governor and other colonial officials. An account of the rebellion is vividly described in the "Diary of Adam Tas".
Johannes Henoch Neethling (1770-1838) was a South African Cape Supreme Court Judge and Grand Master of the Freemasons in South Africa.
Cuyler Manor, or Cuyler House, is a historic house museum in the Western Region of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Cuyler Manor was designated as a Provincial Heritage Site on March 14, 1980. In addition to the farm house, the visitor house, coach house, wagon house, and mill house are protected historic sites, all located between the Swartkops River and a South African Railways facility.