The Castle of Good Hope
The oldest building in South Africa. Built by the VOC between 1666 and 1679. It replaced a small, square, clay and timber fort built by Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. The castle is the only place in the country where the old South African flag is flown officially

City Hall
This building is a slightly fussy Edwardian building dressed in Bath stone which, despite its drab surroundings, looks impressive against Table Mountain.

Grand Parade
It lies to the west of the Castle, it is where the residents of District Six used to come to trade. On Wednesdays and Saturdays it still transforms itself into a market, where you can buy a whole array of bargains ranging from used clothes to spicy food.

Groote Kerk
The Groote Kerk is the parent Church of the Dutch Reformed Church and is the oldest church in South Africa. It was completed in 1704 and has been enlarged twice. It contains an elaborate carved pulpit and beautiful collections of Cape silver and old family crests. Its bell tower, part of the original building, has a clock with a pleasant and distinctive two-tone strike.

St Georges Cathedral
It is the church where Archbishop Desmond retired in 1996 as Bishop of Cape Town and also the place from where the Anti-Apartheid movement gathered. The present cathedral celebrated its centenary in 2000. In a hundred years it has witnessed the changing history of South Africa. What began in 1847, with the arrival of the first Bishop of Cape Town, as an extension of the British Empire is today a building that continues to be a beacon of hope for all who strive for a just and compassionate society. Not only Anglicans (Episcopalians) and not even Christians alone, but all people of faith are welcomed at St. George's Cathedral.

Koopmans de Wet House
This outstanding eighteenth-century pedimented Neoclassical town house and museum, accommodating a very fine collection of antique furniture and rare porcelain. The buildings façade has been attributed to Louis Thibalt and Anton Anreith, but there’s no proof of this. Whoever was responsible, the house represents a fine synthesis of Dutch elements (sash windows and large entrance doors).

Lutheran Church
Next door to the Gold of Africa Museum stands the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Converted by Anton Anreith from a barn, its façade includes classical details such as a broken pediment perforated by the clock tower, as well as Gothic features such as the arched windows.

Long St Baths
Only since apartheid’s Separate Amenities Act was repealed in 1990 have the Long Street Baths been truly public. Inside is a heated swimming pool, changing rooms and Turkish baths with steam and dry-heat rooms. Massages are also available. The pool is very well attended at lunchtime by fitness enthusiasts and businesspeople. The complex dates back to 1908, although the Turkish bath section was later opened in 1929.

Company’s Gardens
These gardens were the initial raison d’etre for the Dutch settlement at the Cape. Established in 1652 to supply fresh greens to Dutch East India Company ships traveling between the Netherlands and the East, the Gardens were initially worked by import slave labour.

Houses of Parliament
Opened in 1885 and enlarged several times since. The houses are a complex of interlinking buildings, with labyrinthine corridors connecting hundreds of offices, debating chambers and miscellaneous other rooms. Many of these are relics of the 1980s reformist phase of Apartheid when, in the interests of racial segregation, there were three distinct legislative complexes sited here to cater to different “races”.

De Tuynhuys
Tuynhuys, the official residence of South Africa’s State President, stands in Government Avenue.

National Gallery
It has a permanent collection of important south African paintings and also holds temporary exhibitions.

Church Square
It was here where the burghers would unhitch their wagons while they attended the Groote Kerk. Slaves were also auctioned under a tree in the square (the spot is now marked with a plaque).

Adderly Street
Once the place to shop in Cape Town, lined with handsome buildings from several centuries, is still worth a stroll today, for what grand architecture remains. Adderley Street was formerly the Heerengracht (Gentlemen’s Canal), the waterway that ran from the Botanical Gardens down to the sea. The street is named after the British politician Charles Adderley who in 1850 successfully addressed the House of Commons in support of the Cape colonists who were lobbying against the Cape Colony serving as a penal colony for British convicts.

Long Street
Long Street is one of the oldest streets in Cape Town with a length of 3.8 kilometres. In the past it was really the longest street in the town centre, stretching from the harbour up to Tamboerskloof. What is remarkable though are the numerous Victorian buildings with cast-iron balcony railings, which have been well restored over the last years.

Methodist Mission Church
This church offered solidarity and ministry to the victims of forced removals right up to the 1980s, and became a venue for anti-apartheid gatherings.

Rhodes Memorial
In 1885 Cecil John Rhodes purchased land on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain as part of a plan to preserve a relatively untouched section, and bequeathed the property to the nation on his death in 1906. He wanted the monument to resemble a Greek temple. The monument celebrates Cecil Rhodes energy with a sculpture of a wildly rearing horse, and the empire builder’s bust is planted at the top of a towering set of stairs.