Nonidas

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Nonidas train station
Station Nonidas in what was then German South West Africa
Station Nonidas in what was then German South West Africa
Data
Operating point type railway station
Platform tracks 1
opening Start of construction: 1897
Architectural data
Architectural style Stone building
location
region Erongo
Country Namibia
Coordinates 22 ° 38 ′ 41 ″  S , 14 ° 37 ′ 4 ″  E Coordinates: 22 ° 38 ′ 41 ″  S , 14 ° 37 ′ 4 ″  E
Railway lines
i11 i16 i16 i18

Former castle hotel Nonidas from a bird's eye view (2017)
Nonidas (German South West Africa), aqueduct from the Swakop

Nonidas is a disused railway station 9.85 kilometers east of Swakopmund and 184.41 kilometers west of Karibib in Namibia on the disused railway line Swakopmund – Windhoek .

location

The location of the station was chosen because it was the first water point on the way from Swakopmund to Windhoek. The water was supplied from the Swakop River , which runs 500 meters away, using a partially elevated pipeline. Today's Otavibahn railway, with a 1067 millimeter (3 foot 6 inch ) cape gauge, runs on a new route a little further north across Namib .

history

Around 1700, "Hunidas", today's Nonidas, was first mentioned in writing as the waterhole of the mountain dama . Around 1750 the Herero chief Tjiponda resided there temporarily. The big game hunter Pieter Pienaar from near Cape Town was the first European to explore the Swakoptal and reported on rhinos, elephants, buffalo, lions and antelopes. The river bed always carried sufficient groundwater even in dry periods and was densely overgrown in some places. The Baiweg, an important route from Walvis Bay (then: Walvis Bay ) via Nonidas to Windhoek , ran through the valley used as pasture . As early as 1892, Captain Curt von Francois had a police and customs station set up in Nonidas to monitor the transports from Walvis Bay, which were manned by a NCO and a rider.

After the railway was built, a butchery in Köstens was mentioned in 1898. The garden business with Gasthaus Märtens, mentioned in writing as early as 1903, was taken over by Wilhelm Brock in 1906. From 1904 there are reports about the Gasthaus Levermann with bowling alley and from 1907 there are reports about the butchery Hauck. There was even an annual horse race in Nonidas.

After the outbreak of the First World War, the railroad tracks were dismantled from the end of 1914. In early 1915, General Louis Botha stationed his troops at Nonidas. On the site of the former police station on a small hill, Renate and Fritz Stiemert built the castle hotel Nonidas over many years from 1964 to 1982, the center of the planned Heritage Hill residential area.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nonidas on a map from the time of German South West Africa
  2. ^ Martin Wollmann: DSWA State Railroad Map.
  3. ↑ Namibia Railways - SL 61: Passenger Stations & Stops, Version of October 27, 2007, §9 State Northern Rly (SNR), p. 2 (English).
  4. ↑ Martin Wollmann: The Swakopmund State Railway - Windhoek Station Nonidas - km: 9.85.
  5. ↑ a b c The plotter from the Swakop-Rivier. General newspaper Namibia, March 1, 2012.
  6. ↑ Nonidas Castle near Swakopmund is auctioned. Namibiana Book Depot, press release, March 20, 2014.