Tulbagh

Tulbagh
Tulbagh
Coordinates	33 ° 17 ′ 6 ″  S , 19 ° 8 ′ 16 ″  E Coordinates: 33 ° 17 ′ 6 ″  S , 19 ° 8 ′ 16 ″  E
Basic data
Country	South Africa
province	Western cape
District	Cape Winelands
local community	Witzenberg
height	800 m
surface	3.8 km²
Residents	8969 (2011)
density	2,354.1  Ew. / km²
founding	1700/1795
Old Cape Dutch style house in Tulbagh

Tulbagh is a wine village in the municipality of Witzenberg , Cape Winelands District , Western Cape Province in South Africa . The place is located about 125 kilometers northeast of Cape Town in the climatically favored Breede River Valley and is surrounded by the up to 2,200 meter high mountains of the Witzenberg Mountains and the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area . Founded in 1700 as Roodezand , the place got its current name in 1795 after Ryk Tulbagh , governor of the Cape Colonyfrom 1751 to 1771. With the new name Tulbagh received city rights. The city is 800 meters above sea level and had a population of 8,969 in 2011.

history

Due to its favorable climatic conditions - abundant rainfall in the winter months (July to August, occasionally even snowfall) and dry and warm in summer - the Tulbagh valley was already occupied by Boers at the end of the 17th century and, with increasing fruit and wine growing, also by English populated. In 1743 the first church in southern Africa was bought here , today a well-known museum ( Oude Kerk -Volksmuseum). The Africans , an Orlam tribe, settled near the village because they found work on the Boer farms and good hunting grounds in the surrounding mountainous landscape. Presumably the later name of the capital of Southwest Africa (today's Namibia ) Windhoek has its roots here in the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness . At least this explanation is obvious, since the Africans became the first permanent residents of Windhuks and their chief Jonker Afrikaner was born near Tulbagh in 1790.

Tulbagh was a bit out of the way and was therefore less developed than the places in the area ( Montagu , Ceres and Worcester ), which had far greater success with viticulture and large-scale orchards, especially since they had better road connections and transports were not difficult passes like the Bain's Had to overcome Kloof Pass .

On September 29, 1969, there was an earthquake , which severely damaged the place. A team made up of historians and architects designed a reconstruction program so that a closed ensemble of houses in the Cape Dutch style was created. All 32 houses on Church Street were listed and now form an open-air museum with buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. The wineries include Drostdy Hof, Twee Jonge, Gezellen and Theuniskraal.

Web links

• South Africa Online: History of Tulbagh . on www.southafrica.co.za (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of city foundations in South Africa , accessed on May 15, 2016
2. ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 23, 2013