About Bloemfontein
As South Africa’s judicial capital, Bloemfontein has, through the years, become known as the “central city”, “the hospitable city”, “the congress city” and “the city of roses”. All these designations indicate that it is a city in which not only residents, but also visitors and tourists can feel truly at home and welcome. With its more than 460 000 inhabitants, Bloemfontein offers adequate recreational and entertainment facilities which include public parks, swimming pools, sport fields, a game reserve and a zoo.
Bloemfontein has created a true blend in which somehow the past, the present and the future have been encapsulated. What keeps the past so alive is the unobtrusive and almost natural inclusion of an impressive and historical heritage into the very life of a modern, developing city. Graceful charm is to be seen all along the historical, tree-lined President Brand Street, a declared national conservation area. Stately museum buildings stand proudly visible at the ends of bustling main streets in the business district, while monuments and memorials, almost unnoticeable, are preserved even in built-up suburbs. A variety of attractions await the visitor to this friendly city – from the unique blend of gracious old world charm to ultra-modern, high-tech sophistication.
Foundation
At the beginning of the 19th century the territory now known as the Free State was a wide plain, largely depopulated as a result of the destruction of lesser native tribes by the Zulu and Matebele. The Basotho and the Griquas had, however, secured territory for themselves in the east and south west respectively.
When the Great Trek began in 1836, the immigrant farmers acquired the land between the Vet and Vaal Rivers, which became the Republic of Winburg. Many other Europeans drifted northwards across the Orange River in search of better grazing for their stock and settled on land which was within the Griqua tribal area.
In 1846 Sir Peregrine Maitland, Governor of the Cape Colony, after whom Maitland Street is named, entered into a treaty with the Griqua chief, Adam Kok. The treaty ensured that the land between the Riet and the Modder Rivers on which Kok laid claim, should be open to European settlement. The British resident in the Griqua territory, Major Henry Douglas Warden, was instructed to move from Phillippolis to a more centrally situated spot in the interest of the settlers. The spot he chose was the farm Bloemfontein, then occupied by a farmer, Johannes Nicolaas Brits.
The factors which influenced his choice were the open country, the fertility of the soil, the proximately to the main route to Winburg, an abundant water supply and the immunity of this part of the country to horse-sickness. The cession of the land was accordingly obtained from Adam Kok, who owned it. The sum of 500 Rix dollars (37 pounds 10 shellings) was paid to Britz in compensation for the mud house he had erected and for the irrigation ditches he had constructed to irrigate out of the Bloem Spruit. In 1853 Brits received a further sum of 50 pounds and a farm in the Harrismith district which he also named Bloemfontein.
The mud house which he erected on the original Bloemfontein farm stood on a site at the back of the old Presidency. It was occupied by Major Warden who later built a four roomed thatch house of turf for his own use on a site opposite the Presidency. The soldiers under his command were first housed in mud huts built in the square near Major Warden’s house. Later they built barracks called Fort Drury (on the site of the present Fort Drury Mansions). For this work they received a wage of four pence a day, the standard wage in the building trade. The site chosen for the barracks was near the then existing spring, which could thus be protected by the Fort. Communication was maintained with the Cape by means of Griqua runners who carried the weekly post to Colesberg. A few houses were built and gradually a village began to develop. Erven were laid out and building lots sold, traders arrived with their wagons of goods and small shops were erected.