Castle of Good Hope

1666

The oldest existing building in South Africa, begun on 2 January 1666

The Dutch East India Company built the Castle between 1666 and 1679, and it is the oldest existing building in South Africa. It replaced a fort of clay and timber that Jan van Riebeeck built when he arrived in 1652. The first stone of the new pentagonal fortress was laid on 2 January 1666. In 1936 it was declared a historical monument, the first site in South Africa to be so protected.

The bell

South Africa's oldest bell was cast in Amsterdam in 1697

A bell tower over the main entrance was built in 1684. The original bell, the oldest in South Africa, was cast in Amsterdam in 1697 by the East-Frisian bellmaker Claude Fremy and weighs just over 300 kilograms. It told the time, warned citizens of danger, and could be heard 10 kilometres away. The walls were painted yellow because it lessened the effect of heat and the sun.

10kilometres away, how far the bell could be heard

1685

A French visitor wished the Company's garden were at Versailles

In June 1685 the French author François-Timoléon de Choisy stopped at the fort on his way to Siam. He wrote that there was a garden the Company had laid out, and that he would love it to be in a corner at Versailles. He noted that more than 25 Dutch East India Company ships stopped at the Cape every year to take on sheep, wine, fruit and vegetables.

Boer War

A prisoner dug at the wall for weeks with an iron spoon

During the Second Boer War, part of the castle was used as a prison, and the cells remain today. One of its prisoners, Fritz Joubert Duquesne, dug away the cement around the stones of the thick walls night after night with an iron spoon. He nearly escaped one night, but a large stone slipped and pinned him in his tunnel. A guard found him the next morning, unconscious but alive.

Slave labour

Enslaved people helped to build the fortress

The fortress was partially built by slave labour. The Dutch East India Company was unsure about the size of the local population groups and feared a revolt if it enslaved them. Instead it brought in enslaved people from Madagascar, Mozambique, the Dutch Indies and India. Work was interrupted often because the Company was reluctant to spend money on the project.