Please support our advertisers who make this free guide possible. FREE Cape Town EDITION 5 GATEWAYGUIDES The Castle of Good Hope The Castle of Good Hope Over the centuries six different flags have flown over the Castle, yet in all that time not a single shot has ever been fired in anger at it or from it. Muizenberg Cape Town False Bay parking lot next to the Golden thick at the base, but thinner at the 1 Why a fort at the Cape 4 5 The building of the Castle of Good Hope? Acre building. His choice of top. This revolutionary design made The main structure of the Castle was Cape Point With the expansion of world trade by design was the novel square the cannon balls ricochet off the wall started in 1665 and formally declared the European powers in the 1500s, with two-gun bastions at each whereas a right-angle hit would weaken complete in 1679 after periods of 6 CAPE TOWN PROPERTY ADVICE trade routes were vital to economic corner. These bastions were the wall far faster. Breaching the wall (by varying building intensity, the sense of With 30 years experience as a leading property A guide to the history power. The main trade route to the the same shape as the ones means of concentrated fire and explosive urgency or lack of it influenced by the practitioner working with South Africa’s largest East used to be overland, but in 1453 seen on the Castle today. charges placed in the weakened area) state of alliances and treaties between property group you can be sure of the best advice of The Castle of Good Hope, Constantinople was captured by the became extremely difficult owing to the nations in Europe. The four bastions of this Turks which effectively closed off this thickness of the wall and the nature of including interesting original fort were named after Most of the materials needed for the trade passage. Other routes east had the tapering design, which did not easily GERLINDE MOSER the ships that brought Van collapse under its own weight. The other Castle were found locally, the bulk of the RE/MAX INTERNATIONAL information, illustrations, to be found. LUMINARY of DISTINCTION Riebeeck’s party to the Cape: feature of this revolutionary design was raw material being stone and mortar. photos and a timeline. The dominant European seafaring Oliphant, Rijger, Drommedaris Materials that could not be procured at Mobile 082 569 4644 The Ravelin was added in 1697 the extensive defensive positions outside nation at that time was Portugal, so and Walvisch. The outer walls the Cape were brought in from Europe. [email protected] just after the new entrance and Bell the main wall, based on the premise of the Portuguese needed to find a way were constructed using sods, These were more specialised materials Tower were moved to this position. defence in depth. This system allowed LIVING to the East by sea. After they had clay, and brushwork. Timber defenders to enfilade or fire into the like the klompjes (little yellowish or red made many voyages down the west The idea behind the Ravelin was the and brick were used on bricks used as ballast in VOC ships) that flanks of attackers. This corner of the Inner Court was first developed by Simon coast of Africa, sailing further each concept of ‘defence in depth’. The interior structures. The fort was can be seen at the main entrance gate. van der Stel in about 1690 with a flower garden and exotic and time, Bartholomeu Dias rounded the entrance road angles right which surrounded by a moat, which The Castle was designed in the shape of Wood was obtained locally at Hout Bay Kenilworth race day experience a pentagon with, at each of its corners, indigenous trees which surrounded a small circular pool. His son, Gateway Flyer.indd 1 2019/04/16 12:02 The Gateway and Bell Tower Cape in 1488, and in 1498 Vasco da does not allow an enemy a direct was fed by the Varsche River. and from overseas. a bastion containing its own gunpowder Enjoy a fun day at Kenilworth Racecourse, Gama finally succeeded in making the shot at the entrance gate. As a defensive structure it Willem Adriaan van der Stel, enlarged the pool to its present size. added (1682-1684) by Simon magazine. Cannon positions atop these After the location of the Castle had the country’s oldest racecourse that enjoys voyage to the East and came back was very poor: the outer walls The pool was demolished in 1860 and restored in 1984. van der Stel and the visiting bastions would cover all fields of fire, been settled upon, the area had to be laden with spices. In 1503 Antonio collapsed more then once under heavy rains. For several years it served its a special place in the history and tradition Commissioner van Goens. This even right up to the base of the curtain walls between bastions. Each bastion cleared of bush and levelled. Hendrik Lacus did all the measuring and the of SA horse-racing. It offers great hospitality entrance replaced the original de Saldanha put in at Table Bay and primary function as a provision station and, luckily, no major attack by the Whal was given the name of one of the official titles of the Prince of Orange, these taking of levels. Foundations were started with the concentration of work on in a stylish setting – all against the iconic nus e C local Khoi-na or a foreign power threatened its existence. An accurate model a Ha ru climbed Table Mountain to get his m w rbo is one on the sea-facing curtain r e u e being Leerdam, Oranje, Buuren, Catzenellenbogen and Nassau. The average Leerdam Bastion. Foundations were 5 m wide, and a depth of 3.5 m was e N r s backdrop of Table Mountain. H bearings. While doing so, he made of this fort can be seen today in the Military Museum in Block E. wall between Buuren and distance from bastion to bastion was 180 m; the average height of the curtain required to reach bedrock. While the digging was taking place, the stone for CAPE TOWN PROPERTY ADVICE a discovery that would change the B g Catzenellenbogen. This includes: o With 30 years experience as a leading property At the same time as the fort was being built and subsequently maintained, the wall was 10 m. the foundations was being cut out of Signal Hill in large blocks; it was then n a i t h course of southern African history: B practitioner c working with South Africa’s largest √ Return transfers from your hotel a at Company’s Garden was planted to fulfil the primary goal of the endeavour – broken up and transported by cart to the Castle. Blue slate used for the walls sed W there was abundant fresh water, a key requirement for a halfway station to The first of Isbrand Goske’s jobs was to find a suitable site for the new castle. property Whale group you can be sure of the best advice to supply passing ships with fresh produce. and shells used in making mortar were obtained from Robben Island. (The or guest house break the long voyage to the East. His first thought was to build around the old fort and demolish it once the mortar consisted of one part lime from shells mixed with one part clay.) √ A host for the day GERLINDE MOSER Three factors, however, allowed the Dutch to gain a strong foothold at the Jan van Riebeeck left for Batavia in 1662, leaving behind the fort he had new castle had been built. This idea was rejected as the functioning of the fort RE/MAX INTERNATIONAL √ A welcome drink on arrival built and a defensive line of smaller forts along would be affected too much. His other concern was that the position of the The workforce needed for the biggest building project of its time in the Cape LUMINARY of DISTINCTION Cape. Firstly, the Portuguese avoided the Cape after an incident in which 64 √ A delicious 3 course meal Mobile 082 569 4644 of their men were killed by the local inhabitants. Secondly, when Portugal the Liesbeeck River and two small forts at the old fort was so close to Signal Hill that an enemy that gained its heights could was first sourced from soldiers not on military duty. Slaves and a few Khoi- Strictly speaking, the name ‘Kat Balcony’ is incorrectly used; [email protected] √ A R 50.00 betting voucher became virtually a province of Spain, she suffered at the hands of Spain’s mouth of the Salt River. These defences na where also roped into the project. As the urgency to finish the project it seems to have stuck for this balcony or porch. It was referred LIVING enemies, especially the English and the Dutch. Thirdly, an attempt to claim along the Liesbeeck were to protect to as the puije by those who built and first used it. Its creation is R1500.00 per person livestock and grazing land. By 1672 the Cape for England was not supported by the king. The way was therefore Oranje Bastion attributed to Anton Anreith and Louis Michel Thibault. www.xplorecapetown.co.za clear for the Dutch to increase their trade with the East, stopping frequently the little settlement had over 200 Bakery or Bakhuys Dolphin Pool escalated, incentives for the soldiers were put in place, free burghers brought Gateway Flyer.indd 1 2019/04/16 12:02 at the Cape.