Worcester, Western Cape
Province
Worcester is a city in the municipality of Breede Valley, Cape Winelands District, Western Cape Province in South Africa. She's supply center for the surrounding wine and fruit growing in the Breede River Valley and the municipal offices. The city is 223 meters above sea level on the N1 highway that connects Cape Town ( 121 km away) and Johannesburg. 2011 they had 97 098 inhabitants.
Worcester is surrounded by the Brandwacht, Overhex and Langeberg Mountains. The Breede River and Hex River flowing on either side of town. The Hex River falls after rainless summers often dry.
History
1820 Worcester District was established as a sub - Drostdy of Tulbagh. Two farms, Langerug and Roodewal were acquired to establish a city on this land. The first 44 lots were sold in February 1820 and 1822 Worcester was proclaimed as an independent Drostei after a storm had destroyed the Drostdy of Tulbagh. Full municipal law she received in 1842.
The city was named after the Marquis of Worcester, a brother of Lord Charles Henry Somerset, Governor of the British Cape Colony.
Attractions
- The old Drostei
- Kleinplasie open-air museum on the road in the direction of Robertson
- KWV Brandy Cellar, a distillery and winery, which is one of the largest in the world.
- Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden, 144 acres in size, located outside the city, of which 11 hectares as a landscape garden
- Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden
Sons and daughters of the town
- C. Louis Leipoldt (1880-1947), writer
- Stefanus Francois Naudé Gie (1884-1945), South African diplomat
- David Kramer ( born 1951 ), South African singer, songwriter and musical composer
- Anne Landsman ( born 1959 ), South African writer
Other personalities
- JM Coetzee: The writer and Nobel lived as a child in Worcester. These childhood memories he describes in his book The Boy. An African Childhood (Original Title: Boyhood ).
- Cromwell Everson, the composer of the first Afrikaans opera Klutaimnestra (1967 ), was a teacher in Worcester.