For a bit of educational leisure and to take advantage of a forecasted sunny day, rain is on the way again, I decided to dedicate my saturday to the exploration of Cape Town's southern suburbs near Table Mountain. This ended up including a tour of the Groot Constancia dutch-style winery/estate, the Kirstenbach National Gardens, the Irma Stern Museum, and a cable car ride up Table Mountain.
Many of you may have seen photos or even have visited Groot Constancia as it is a well-touristed historical site. Groot Constancia (Great Constancia) is South Africa's oldest wine producing estate. Originally built in the late 1600s by the Dutch East India Company and given to the Cape's first governor, the estate, one of the best preserved examples of colonial dutch architecture, changed hands three or four times before being ceded to the South African government. As previously discussed, Groot Constancia, as with other industries, relied on slave labor from other parts of Africa, India, and Indonesia as well as on Cape born coloreds. Even after slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s, Groot Constancia continued to use "apprentice laborers/tradesmen"; individuals who had been seized by the British from illegal slave traders. Groot Constancia continues to produce award-winning wine and is even known to have been consumed by Napoleon when he had been exiled to Saint Helena Island. The house also hosted dignitaries, during the era of the British Empire, en route from England to assume posts in the then still remote and distant Australia. The main house remains open for tours and is furnished in the Dutch style. Some of the furniture, however, was made locally of stinkwood - a tree indigenous to South Africa. The original bachelor's quarters is now a restaurant while the slave quarters now houses the museum orientation center. The original wine celler now houses a collection of wagons and other historical materials used in the production of wine. There is also a modern wine-tasting center.
Following this, I was lucky to have visited some of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. Kirstenbosch National Gardens rivals the best gardens in the world even, perhaps, besting Kew Gardens in London in some regards. Kirstenbosch, a local center for the conservation of indigenous plants, does, indeed, consist of mostly indigenous plants to South Africa and currently cultivates some 9,000 out of 20,000 native species of plants including those in danger of extinction due largely to human error brushfires. The only part of the garden not indigenous to South Africa remains the alley of trees planted by Cecil Rhodes, over 100 years ago, each representing a different area of the then far-flung British empire. Cecil Rhodes also donated the land to create Kirstenbosch. As South African winters are more mild than those in the Northeast of the United States, and is like that of California, there is always something blooming such as Proteas. However, the garden is apparently best viewed in early/late spring (August to October). As a reminder to my 9th grade learners, as South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed to that of the United States.
It only being two-thirty at this time, and wanting to visit Table Mountain closer to sunset, I took the advice of my guidebook to visit a lesser-known house museum nestled in the suburb of Rosebank. Now owned by the University of Cape Town, the Irma Stern Museum remains a testament to the creative artistic talents of its namesake. Ms. Stern, a South African artist of German-Jewish background, had a leaning towards portraiture painting and vivid colors. Albeit, some of her works are realistic in nature while others were influenced by the likes of Picasso or, perhaps, Matisse. Ms. Stern, herself always grappling with issues of identity and isolation as a white, Jewish African woman, was consistently drawn to creating images of the "other". Indeed, in South Africa with its diversity, in some ways, every one is "the other". The house is covered from floor to ceiling with Ms. Stern's paintings of individuals be they African or European as encountered during Ms. Stern's long sojourns to pre/post WW I era Germany. While I think that the only paintings in the home were solely created by this committed artist, indeed she married and quickly divorced, in part, because of her creative passions, the home is also abundantly filled with artifacts from Ms. Stern's travels throughout Africa and the world. The front door, for example, was collected by Ms. Stern during her travels to Zanzibar. The studio in the home remains as it did on the day when Ms. Stern passed away and her paints/brushes seem as if they remain ready for use once again. The house itself is also a cornicopia of color. All in all, this was a very interesting museum that left me wanting to know more about this artist.
The views from the top of Table Mountain were spectacular and worth the cable car trip. Of particular note, I found the role of the mountain itself in the creation of Cape Town interesting. As the mountain is tall, it captures moisture from the sea winds/mist which settles on its scrub bushes and rocks. This moisture collects in small pools and eventually descends down the mountain, through cracks and fissures, to produce fresh water for the city below. This is especially important during the dry, hot summer months.
Many of you may have seen photos or even have visited Groot Constancia as it is a well-touristed historical site. Groot Constancia (Great Constancia) is South Africa's oldest wine producing estate. Originally built in the late 1600s by the Dutch East India Company and given to the Cape's first governor, the estate, one of the best preserved examples of colonial dutch architecture, changed hands three or four times before being ceded to the South African government. As previously discussed, Groot Constancia, as with other industries, relied on slave labor from other parts of Africa, India, and Indonesia as well as on Cape born coloreds. Even after slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s, Groot Constancia continued to use "apprentice laborers/tradesmen"; individuals who had been seized by the British from illegal slave traders. Groot Constancia continues to produce award-winning wine and is even known to have been consumed by Napoleon when he had been exiled to Saint Helena Island. The house also hosted dignitaries, during the era of the British Empire, en route from England to assume posts in the then still remote and distant Australia. The main house remains open for tours and is furnished in the Dutch style. Some of the furniture, however, was made locally of stinkwood - a tree indigenous to South Africa. The original bachelor's quarters is now a restaurant while the slave quarters now houses the museum orientation center. The original wine celler now houses a collection of wagons and other historical materials used in the production of wine. There is also a modern wine-tasting center.
Following this, I was lucky to have visited some of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. Kirstenbosch National Gardens rivals the best gardens in the world even, perhaps, besting Kew Gardens in London in some regards. Kirstenbosch, a local center for the conservation of indigenous plants, does, indeed, consist of mostly indigenous plants to South Africa and currently cultivates some 9,000 out of 20,000 native species of plants including those in danger of extinction due largely to human error brushfires. The only part of the garden not indigenous to South Africa remains the alley of trees planted by Cecil Rhodes, over 100 years ago, each representing a different area of the then far-flung British empire. Cecil Rhodes also donated the land to create Kirstenbosch. As South African winters are more mild than those in the Northeast of the United States, and is like that of California, there is always something blooming such as Proteas. However, the garden is apparently best viewed in early/late spring (August to October). As a reminder to my 9th grade learners, as South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed to that of the United States.
It only being two-thirty at this time, and wanting to visit Table Mountain closer to sunset, I took the advice of my guidebook to visit a lesser-known house museum nestled in the suburb of Rosebank. Now owned by the University of Cape Town, the Irma Stern Museum remains a testament to the creative artistic talents of its namesake. Ms. Stern, a South African artist of German-Jewish background, had a leaning towards portraiture painting and vivid colors. Albeit, some of her works are realistic in nature while others were influenced by the likes of Picasso or, perhaps, Matisse. Ms. Stern, herself always grappling with issues of identity and isolation as a white, Jewish African woman, was consistently drawn to creating images of the "other". Indeed, in South Africa with its diversity, in some ways, every one is "the other". The house is covered from floor to ceiling with Ms. Stern's paintings of individuals be they African or European as encountered during Ms. Stern's long sojourns to pre/post WW I era Germany. While I think that the only paintings in the home were solely created by this committed artist, indeed she married and quickly divorced, in part, because of her creative passions, the home is also abundantly filled with artifacts from Ms. Stern's travels throughout Africa and the world. The front door, for example, was collected by Ms. Stern during her travels to Zanzibar. The studio in the home remains as it did on the day when Ms. Stern passed away and her paints/brushes seem as if they remain ready for use once again. The house itself is also a cornicopia of color. All in all, this was a very interesting museum that left me wanting to know more about this artist.
The views from the top of Table Mountain were spectacular and worth the cable car trip. Of particular note, I found the role of the mountain itself in the creation of Cape Town interesting. As the mountain is tall, it captures moisture from the sea winds/mist which settles on its scrub bushes and rocks. This moisture collects in small pools and eventually descends down the mountain, through cracks and fissures, to produce fresh water for the city below. This is especially important during the dry, hot summer months.
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