Cape Town, Castle of Good Hope

Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

From the outside, South Africa's oldest official buildings looks somewhat miserable, and its position on Darling Street, behind the train station and city-bus terminal, does nothing to dispel this.

Nevertheless, the Castle of Good Hope is well worth the entrance free; inside, a meticolous ten-year restoration has returned the decor to the British Regency style introduced in 1798.


Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

But the Castle has also shaken off a dour historical image, and has some fine contemporary exhibitions.

Completed in 1679, the castle replaced Van Riebeeck's earlier mud and timber fort, which stood on the site of the Grand Parade.
It was built in accordance with seventeenth-century European principles of fortification, comprising strong bastions from which the outside walls could be protected by crossfire.


Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

The entrance is a fine exemple of seventeenth-century Dutch classicism and, in the tower above, the bell cast in Amsterdam in 1697 still hangs from its original wooden beams.
For 150 years, the castle remained the symbolic heart of the Cape administration, and the centre of social and economic life.


Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

Inside the castle are three interesting collections.
The Military Museum has displays on the conflicts that dogged the early settlement; the Secunde's House has furnishings, paintings and objets d'art that filled the living space of the deputy governor; and the William Fehr Collection, one of the country's most important exhibits of decorative arts, includes paintings of the settlement, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dutch and Indonesian furniture, and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Chinese and Japanese porcelain.


Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

Guided tours are useful for orientation and cover the main features of the castle.
In the elegant courtyard there is a very pleasant teashop, with Table Mountain looming over the west wall.


Questa foto di Castle of Good Hope è offerta da TripAdvisor.

http://magicnamibia.blogspot.com
http://magicbotswana.blogspot.com

http://magiadinamibia.blogspot.com