Paarl

Paarl is a town of South Africa, in the province of the Cape-Westerner. It is known for its mount in Granite (largest in the world after that of Uluru in Australia), its Vignoble S famous and the monument with the glory of the language Afrikaans.

Localization and town planning

Paarl is located at 65 kilometers north-eastern of the city of the Cape and counts nearly 110 thousand inhabitants (census 2001). It is accessible from the Cape by the trunk road N1.

Paarl has a long principal artery which makes nearly 12 km length, the city is all in length, taken between the mountain and a river.

History

In 1657, the colonist Dutch Abraham Gabemma, in the search of a place where to establish its farm, baptized “Peerlebergh” the granite mount which dominated the place where it was going to settle. In 1687, grounds were conceded with the Dutch farmers (Boers) near to the river Berg and the community of Paarl started to develop.

Since 2000, the town of Paarl belongs to the municipality of Drakenstein.

Tourist attractions

Paarl is one of the three older towns of South Africa (after the Cape and Stellenbosch). One can thus see and appreciate several types of architecture, in particular Dutch and English, of beautiful gardens and the streets bordered of oaks centenaries.

The old town hall east thus of architectural style afrikaner. The old presbytery (1787) contains today a collection of furniture afrikaner.

Paarl is the place of baptism of the language Afrikaans symbolized by the museum of the language ( die Taal ) and especially by the Afrikaanse Taalmonument (the Monument of the language Afrikaans) inaugurated in 1975 (year of the centenary of the foundation of the “Association of Afrikaners truths). Indeed, it is in Paarl in 1875 that Stephanus Jacobus Of the Roof and a group of teachers and pastors of the Dutch reformed church had founded a cultural movement of claim, " Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners" (the “Association of Afrikaners truths”) whose objective was to defend and to impose the Afrikaans on the side of English like official language of the Colonie of the Cape. It was a question for them of giving to the spoken language by the peasants afrikaners its noble letters and of making genuine communications tools of it written.

The complex structure of the Monument of the language Afrikaans, composed of several phallic forms convex or concave, evokes the European heritage of the language, the African influences, the bridge between the Europe and the Africa, the language Afrikaans itself, the republic and the Malayan culture . The African influence is represented by semi-spherical forms low height which appear largely dominated by the representations of the European heritage and the language Afrikaans.

Since Paarl, the tourist roads lead to the valley of Brede, by the collars Of the Kloof Roofs or with Ceres by the collar Michells.

Wine industry

Paarl is the center of a great area of Verger S and Vignoble S.

The general headquarter of wine industry of South Africa ( Wine Growers' Association - KWV in Afrikaans) is located at Paarl.

It is a true South-African institution with the international reputation.

Anecdote

It is prison Victor Verster, located close to Paarl, that Nelson Mandela was released the February 11th 1990.

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