Swellendam

Province

Swellendam is a town in the district Overberg, Western Cape Province in South Africa.

Geography

Swellendam is located approximately 230 kilometers east of Cape Town and about 220 kilometers west of George on the N2 national road and spreads in about 120 meters to the slightly undulating southern slopes of the Langeberg Mountains from. The coast of the Indian Ocean is approximately 50 kilometers away. 2011, the city had 17,537 inhabitants.

To the west of the Breede River flowing past, which flows south-east of Swellendam at Witsand in the Indian Ocean. Nearby are the towns of Ashton, Barrydale, Montagu and Robertson.

History

Swellendam was founded in 1745 as an outpost of the Dutch East India Company and is therefore to Cape Town and Stellenbosch, the third oldest town in South Africa. Your namesake was the Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife Helena, who was born ten Damme.

In 1795, the inhabitants were so incensed by the Dutch East India Company that it the Landdrost, district officials employed by the Cape government, deposed and the Republic of Swellendam cried out under their leader Hermanus Steyn. These Boer Republic was only three months ( February to June 1795 ), until the British occupied the territory on behalf of the Dutch Erbstatthalters William V.

1865, the city was ravaged by a fire. Nevertheless, many older buildings have been preserved.

Attractions

From the founding period Swellendam, 1747, comes the extended and modified in 1844 Drostdy buildings in the Cape Dutch style. Here resided the Landdrost. The building now forms the core of a small museum complex, which among other things, the old prison heard.

In the center is a church that belongs to the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. The wooden spire in 2008 was so rotten that it had to be replaced. When attempting to remove them with the help of ropes and a helicopter, she fell on the church roof.

Seven kilometers south of the town is the entrance to Bontebok National Park, which houses about 200 except Bontebok antelope and springbok and also around 20 mountain zebra. The National Park can be explored in their own cars. Directly above the city is the Marloth Nature Reserve.

Tourism

Swellendam offers a good tourist infrastructure with numerous lodging options ( primarily Bed & Breakfast establishments, some with the highest comfort and Cape Dutch houses) as well as restaurants. On the outskirts there is a 9 - hole golf course.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Francis William Reitz (1844-1934), journalist and 5th President of the Orange Free State 1889-1895
• Peter Lafras ( Piet ) Uys ( 1797-1838 ), Voortrekker leader
• Arnold van Zyl ( born 1959 ), Rector of the Technical University of Chemnitz