Bethanie (North West)
| Bethanie | |||
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| Coordinates | 25 ° 33 '15 " S , 27 ° 36' 22" E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| northwest | |||
| District | Bojanala Platinum | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-NW | ||
| local community | Rustenburg | ||
| height | 1080 m | ||
| surface | 27.9 km² | ||
| Residents | 8429 (2011) | ||
| density | 302.4 Ew. / km² | ||
| founding | 1864 | ||
 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethanie
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Bethanie is a place in the municipality of Rustenburg in the district Bojanala Platinum , about 60 km north-west of Pretoria , in the province of North West in South Africa . The place is named after the biblical Bethany , where Jesus Christ was baptized. The place was founded in 1864 by the Hermannsburg Mission as a mission station .
In the middle of the 19th century a group of Bakwena ba Mogopa lived on the Losperfontein farm near the village of Brits . The Hermannsburg missionary Wilhelm Behrens (senior) arrived here in November 1864 . At that time the farm belonged to Tjaart Kruger, a younger brother of Paul Kruger . Two years later the property was up for sale and the mission society made use of this opportunity together with the local residents. After they bought it, they renamed it Bethany .
After their arrival, the missionaries had started to erect a simple church building made of Wattle weave, the walls of which they pelted with clay . A first massive church building made of bricks was built a short time later in 1867 and it was 18 × 7 meters in size. The station erected the bell tower, which is still free today, more than 10 years later. With the church community growing in membership, the question of an extension or a new building arose.
After some thought, the decision was made to build a church with an area of 550 square meters and a cross-shaped floor plan. The church space grew to four times the size of the previous building. The municipality hired JF Kroll from Pretoria to plan and supervise the construction . His design took up neoclassical style elements. The position of the church tower on the eastern side of the building is seen as an idiosyncratic variant of the overall design , quasi the end of the transept.
Construction began on May 3, 1891, with the participation of two German bricklayers, and the foundation stone was laid on May 7. The work progressed quickly, so that the church building could be consecrated on May 18, 1892.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Konrad Voges: Lutheran Mission Church Bethanie, North West . on www.artefacts.co.za (English)
- ↑ census 2011