Castle of Good Hope

by Travel Writer Sasha Arms

Dating back to the 1600s, the Castle of Good Hope is the oldest colonial building in South Africa and continues to be a hive of activity in central Cape Town. An impressive structure surrounded by a moat and home to a couple of museums, it’s a worthy stop on any visitor’s itinerary.

The castle was built by the Dutch East India Company between 1666 and 1679 and had the important duty of being a ‘replenishment station’, for sailors to take a break from the often treacherous seas along the spice route. The idea was to reduce the number falling ill and dying from diseases that could be prevented with a stop-over to collect healthy fresh produce. It was such a welcome sight for seafarers that Cape Town apparently became known as the ‘tavern of the seas’. Inside the fortress was a welcome array of amenities for the sea-weary, including a bakery, apothecary, wine cellar and other shops, a church, a wagon-maker’s workshop and living quarters.

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Built by soldiers, slaves and some indigenous Khoina using granite from Signal Hill and blue slate and shells from Robben Island, the Castle of Good Hope’s very walls are steeped in history as much as the interior is. Impressively, the castle was never attacked despite battles in the region during the castle’s lifetime. As a result of this and due to a continued programme of careful maintenance, the castle is in excellent shape. Some sections of the moat were restored in the early 1990s and the lawns inside the museum are in pristine condition.

Inside the fortress

From the imposing grey exterior of the Castle of Good Hope, the manicured gardens, water features and Mediterranean-style interior of the fortress is quite a surprise. The yellow painted walls originally had a practical use – to make the often stifling heat more bearable – but today has more of an effect of adding to the ambience of the place. The feeling is overwhelmingly tranquil inside and an afternoon can easily be spent wandering the grounds.

This peace is only shattered at 10am and 12pm every day with the ceremony of the keys, which ends with the sound of a gunshot. There is a military presence at the castle to this day and you’ll see uniformed South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers guarding the grounds.

To start with, get a feel for the castle and meander along the paths and through the innumerable arches you’ll come across. The pentagonal-shaped castle has a bastion at each pinnacle – Buuren, Catzenellenbogen, Leerdam, Nassau and Oranje – named after Prince William of Orange’s titles. Once you’ve got your bearings, have a look at the museums that are located inside the castle.

Museums in the castle

The Castle of Good Hope is home to the Castle Military Museum and the William Fehr Collection. The Castle Military Museum looks at everything to do with the castle’s military history, as well as the history of the Cape as a whole. It really is worth seeing and puts the castle’s dominating presence into context.

The William Fehr Collection is a series of paintings and other decorative art, which focuses on colonial South Africa, particularly in its earlier history. William Fehr, a Cape businessman born in 1892, lent his collection to the castle in the 1950s and it remains there to this day. It’s poignant that early representations of colonialism in the Cape should be housed in the country’s oldest colonial building.

The collection includes ceramics, furniture and paintings that represent different global influences. Paintings range from those depicting the British colonial expansion in the Cape to a Xhosa chief at home. The ceramics include blue and white pieces typical of China, while some of the furniture on display uses exotic dark woods from Asia.

The Good Hope Gallery also hosts rotating exhibitions that will be of interest to visitors to the castle. Past exhibitions have included ‘Not Alone’, which featured the work of artists from countries including South Africa, Brazil, India and the United States and looked at the global AIDS epidemic, promoting the importance of treatment. ‘Breathing Spaces’ was a photo exhibition of some neighbourhoods in Durban, while ‘Then and Now’ looked at the work of different documentary photographers at various stages of South Africa’s history. These rotating exhibitions often let visitors into a different aspect of South African life, making their visit to the castle a well-rounded and pleasantly surprising experience.

Cape Town Military Tattoo

Those who want to see military displays in action should see whether Cape Town’s annual military tattoo coincides with their trip to the Cape. The tattoo tends to be held for a few days in November ever year, at the grounds of the Castle of Good Hope. The tattoo is made up of impressive military displays and rituals, designed to be informative about the military as well as entertaining. It’s also a chance for the SANDF to build relationships with the community and to demonstrate the role they would play in protecting them against any future threats.

Full of loud noises, bright lights and carnival melodrama, the programme differs slightly every year. It includes the likes of a fanfare, military bands, pipes, dancers and majorettes, as well as drill squads, gunfire and international military guest spots.

It’s a real event in the city, attracting Capetonians and international visitors alike, and you won’t find anything else like it in Cape Town.

Practical information

The Cape of Good Hope is open from 9am to 4pm every day. The key ceremony is at 10am and 12pm Monday to Friday, and the signal canyon is fired at 10.10am and 12.10pm from Monday to Friday, and 11am and 12pm on Saturdays. Entrance costs 25 Rand until March 2010, when there may be a slight increase in price.

The annual Cape Town Military Tattoo runs for three or four evenings in a row, starting at about 8pm and goes on for a couple of hours.

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Sasha Arms is a freelance writer, editor and web communications strategist. She has travelled extensively, particularly across South Africa, Europe and the Americas and has contributed to a number of notable publications, including the Lonely Planet Bluelist. Read more about Sasha Arms

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