Matjiesfontein

Matjiesfontein is a small town of South Africa registers with the inventory of the historic buildings of the country since 1970.

Geography

Matjiesfontein is located in the Province Cape-Westerner, in the desert of Karoo with 280km of the city of the Cape and 220 km of Beaufort West on the N1 highway.

It belongs to the local Municipalité of Laingsburg (6 681 inhabitants) within the municipal district of the Karoo-Center.

History

Matjiesfontein was founded in 1884 per James Douglas Logan. It was in the beginning a simple station of Railroad used to refresh the Locomotive S with vapor. Logan developed the station to make an health center for the travellers of it. A hotel opened in 1899. It took the name of Alfred Milner, the name of the high commissioner of the Colonie of the Cape. During the War of Boers, Matjiesfontein was the general headquarter of the British forces and the hotel was transformed into hospital of countryside.

The locality somewhat abandoned as from the years 1940 then was repurchased in 1968 by a patron, David Rawdon, who undertook to restore the principal buildings like the town hall, the hotel, the police station and the 15 houses victoriennes.

Since 1970, Matjiesfontein is registered with the national heritage of the historic buildings. The hotel constitutes a historical destination and a halt impossible to circumvent of Rovos Rail, a tourist train of luxury drawn by an engine with vapor, circulating between the Cape, Pretoria and Victoria Falls with the Zimbabwe.

External bonds

Site of the Milner hotel in Matjiesfontein
Presentation of Matjiesfontein
Tourism in Matjiesfontein
History of Matjiesfontein

Random links: