Johan Nepgen is a tour guide in Stellenbosch. He takes you on walks in this historic and very beautiful University town
and knows all the interesting and intriguing stories that bring the city to life
We were lucky enough to be invited to do a tour of the art, photography and history
when we visited Stellenbosch for their festival
The city is filled with superb sculptures by well-known artists
We began the tour opposite our hotel Coopmanshuis in Church Street;
these were on the opposite pavement. Buck in flight, not named, but possibly Vincent da Silva
We loved the Sprinting Hare
"The Race is on, Ever sprinting, Never there"
by sculptor Stephen Rautenbach
and his Kraken
Goddess. That beastly North Westerly Wind. Bronze. Also by Stephen Rautenbach
We peered into the window of a showroom further up the street filled with many scuptures
There are many very large format photographs displayed about the town.
Some from international photographers
Stellenbosch Library Cat, sitting outside the Stellenbosch Library
Time for a break
A tribute to President Nelson Mandela in Mandela Square by renowned landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe
De Nieuwe Molen (The New Mill) water wheel, which dates back to 1749
and this oak in Mill Street which is almost a national monument, it is so old and large
The Checkers building was built by OK Bazaars in the 1950s
The Stellenbosch Council would not allow them to take out the tree,
so they had to make a hole in the parapet to accommodate it
and in Dorp street we visited an art exhibition in GUS Gallery
Housed in the old Lutheran Church, the beautiful historic façade is in complete contrast to the displays inside
It is an off-campus extension of the University of Stellenbosch’s Visual Arts department,
where practice-based research artists and students display their works
On display was some modern jewellery
In a shop window, a bronze of one of our endangered wild dogs, which we are concerned for and love
The famous Heuer Pianos shop in Stellenbosch, a mecca for musicians and music students
and another nod to South African history, "OLD MAC - Digging For Happiness",
a tribute to South Africa's mining legacy. Madge and George Lang created the figure in 1956
The houses in Dorp Street were all re-numbered when the tidy British were in charge
but the city has kept the original numbers, incorporated as tiles in the pavement
The stump of a huge oak tree is still there,
incorporated into the terrace of this historic house at 162 Dorp Street which is now part of the Stellenbosch Hotel
It must have been a very large oak
Some street advertising for the hotel. Signs have to conform with the strict standards imposed in Dorp Street
It is the second oldest road in the country, and it and its buildings are national monuments
The authorities in this popular university town have always been very concerned with preservation of its character
Dorp Street has one of the longest rows of surviving old buildings of any major town in southern Africa
It is filled with historic houses from different periods, from Cape Dutch to Georgian and Victorian
Most are national monuments and are protected
The channel of water, known as the Lywater, mill stream releases water at prearranged periods for different areas
so that people can access the water for irrigation. It also helps to clear the gutters
Saxenhof was formerly known as Neethling House. In 1889 the house was sold to Dr. Johannes Henoch Neethling,
who, shortly after, converted the old single-storey house into a charming Georgian style double-storey house.
Many Seventeenth Century buildings went through "updating" conversions in the subsequent centuries,
before strict standards were applied
At the top of Church Street is the historic N.G. Moederkerk (Dutch Reformed Mother church)
This congregation was founded in 1686
The Seminary, now the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University
In the Seminary gardens, a statue of John Murray and N.J. Hofmeyer,
two major religious figures in the life of Stellenbosch and South Africa
The tallest tree in Stellenbosch is in the garden; it's a Norfolk Pine planted in the grounds of The Seminary
The facade of Hofmeyer Hall in Dorp Street, now a conference centre
All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right
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