Castle of Good Hope

The Castle of Good Hope was built between 1666 and 1679 as Cape Town’s bastion fort.  It is the oldest existing colonial building in South Africa.  It replaced a former fort called the Fort de Goede Hoop which had been built by Jan van Riebeeck (1619-77) on his arrival in 1652.  It was originally positioned on the coastline of Table Bay but due to land reclamation, the new fort is now located inland.  Today it is a historical provincial heritage site and is regarded as the best-preserved example of a Dutch East India Company fort.  The Dutch settlement in the Cape was established to serve as a reinforcement station for ships sailing through the coast of the Cape on their way to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Guided tours operate seven days a week, unearthing the castle’s hidden history.