Wellington (South Africa)
| Wellington | |||
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 38 ′ 0 ″ S , 18 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Western cape | |||
| District | Cape Winelands | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA toilet | ||
| local community | Drakenstein | ||
| height | 99 m | ||
| surface | 30.2 km² | ||
| Residents | 55,543 (2011) | ||
| density | 1,841.6 Ew. / km² | ||
| founding | 1837 | ||
| Website | www.wellington.co.za (English) | ||
 The Moederkerk in Wellington
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Wellington is a town in the Drakenstein municipality , Cape Winelands district , Western Cape Province in South Africa . It is located in the wine regions north of Paarl and around 70 kilometers northeast of Cape Town . The church and the Wellington Museum are well worth a visit . Close to town is Bain's Kloof Pass , built in 1853 , which connects Wellington with Worcester and Ceres . The city is 99 meters above sea level and had 55,543 inhabitants in 2011.
In addition to Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek , Wellington is an important center of viticulture in the region.
history
The valley and the area around the city were already settled in the Stone Age. Settlement took place over thousands of years up to the San in the 18th and 19th centuries. Items from this period were found in the area around the city and can now be viewed in the Wellington Museum.
At first the area was known as Limiet Vallei (German roughly: "Grenztal"). After Huguenots settled there in the 17th century , it was called Val du Charron or Wagenmakersvallei. The city was then founded in 1837. In 1840 it was renamed Wellington after the general Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , who defeated Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 .
In 1864 a train from Cape Town reached the city for the first time . Following a project opened in Durban in 1860, the railway line is one of the early beginnings of public rail transport in South Africa .
economy
In Wellington there is an industrial site (formerly Somchem ) for products for domestic and foreign ammunition requirements , which formerly belonged to the state arms company Denel and since 2008 has been producing the majority under the Rheinmetall group division Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) based in South Africa .
sons and daughters of the town
- Abdullah Abdurahman (1872–1940), politician, leader of the Coloreds
- Barry Hertzog (1866–1942), Boer general and Prime Minister of South Africa
- Pieter Retief (1780–1838), Voortrekker leader
- Adam Small (1936–2016), writer and humanities scholar
Other personalities
- Andrew Murray (1828–1917), writer and pastor, worked in Wellington
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Wellington Museum (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 24, 2013
- ^ The Spoornet Heritage . at www.spoornet.co.za
- ↑ Illustration: Arrival of the first train at the opening of the Cape Town to Wellington Railway 1864 . at www.flickr.com
- ^ Rheinmetall Denel Munition: History . at www.somchemreload.com (English)
- ↑ Denel Industrial Properties: Rheinmetall Denel Munition | Somerset West . on www.denelproperties.co.za (English)