Tulbagh
Church Street Holds More Restored Cape Dutch, Victorian And Edwardian Buildings In A Single Row Than Anywhere Else In South Africa And It Holds Them BECAUSE AN EARTHQUAKE IN SEPTEMBER 1969 WRECKED THE TOWN And The Street Was Painstakingly Rebuilt To Its Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Form, Which Is The Whole Story And Is Not A Story About Survival · Tulbagh, Western Cape
Church Street holds more restored Cape Dutch, Victorian and Edwardian buildings in a single row than any other street in South Africa, and the reason is not preservation. At around midnight on 29 September 1969 an earthquake measuring about 6.3 struck this valley, killed several people, and wrecked most of the town - and what followed was one of the largest restoration projects the country has undertaken, rebuilding the street to its eighteenth and nineteenth-century form from photographs, measured drawings and whatever original fabric survived. So the street is genuine in its lines and largely new in its substance, and this row says that plainly rather than selling it as untouched. The valley around it is ringed by mountains on three sides, grows wine and fruit, and sits an hour and a half from Cape Town carrying a small fraction of Franschhoek's traffic, for no reason anybody has ever explained.
In a valley ringed by mountains 120 km north-east of Cape Town, beyond the Winelands, Tulbagh, Western Cape, South Africa
A working village. CHURCH STREET IS A PUBLIC STREET, free to walk at any hour, and is the reason to come - the buildings are houses, guesthouses, restaurants and small museums rather than an open-air exhibit. The Oude Kerk Volksmuseum and the other small museums along the street keep daylight hours, close on Sundays and sometimes a weekday, and charge small fees. Wine estates in the valley keep tasting-room hours and several close on Sundays; the Tulbagh wine route is a separate thing from the Winelands proper and quieter. Restaurants are few and worth booking at weekends. The village has fuel, a shop and a good spread of accommodation. It is 120 km from Cape Town. MALARIA-FREE.