Heidelberg and the Suikerbosrand Foothills

The Capital Of The Transvaal For A Few Months In 1880 And 1881 During The First Anglo Boer War, Which Left It A Victorian Main Street, A Transport Museum In The Old Station And A Klipkerk Of Local Stone At The Foot Of The Suikerbosrand Ridge, An Hour From Johannesburg, And Almost Entirely Ignored By It · Heidelberg, Gauteng

For a few months in 1880 and 1881, during the first Anglo-Boer war, this small town at the foot of the Suikerbosrand ridge was the capital of the Transvaal. That is the whole claim and it is enough on its own: it left Heidelberg a Victorian main street, a stone Klipkerk, a cluster of nineteenth-century buildings and a transport museum in the old railway station, barely half an hour from the eastern edge of Johannesburg and almost completely ignored by all of it. The town has been in slow economic decline for decades now and this row does not pretend otherwise - shops are shut, some of the museums have had closure periods, and nobody is going to describe it as undiscovered. What it is, is the only old town within an hour of Johannesburg, with the largest nature reserve in the old Transvaal on the ridge behind it - which together make a better day out of the city than either manages alone.

At the foot of the Suikerbosrand ridge in southern Gauteng, 60 km south-east of Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Gauteng, South Africa

A small working town. THE MAIN STREET AND THE KLIPKERK are public and walkable at any hour; the church is in use and seen from outside or at services. THE HEIDELBERG TRANSPORT MUSEUM in the old railway station keeps limited daylight hours and HAS HAD CLOSURE PERIODS - telephone before driving out if it is why you are coming, because the town's small museums are run on thin budgets. Several main-street shops are permanently shut, which is the town's economic situation rather than a holiday. SUIKERBOSRAND NATURE RESERVE on the ridge behind has its own gate, fee and well-documented closure problems - it is a seeded row of its own and should be confirmed separately. Heidelberg has fuel, shops and a few places to eat. Johannesburg is 60 km. MALARIA-FREE.

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