The best museums South Africa

This is THE Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town. A huge building, that of the former Silo Building, a pharaonic transformation project in the industrial district of the V&A Waterfront that gave birth to the first museum of this scale in Africa. A cultural institution that, in addition to exhibitions, events, workshops and other events, contributes to the cultural and artistic scene in Cape Town and highlights contemporary art from all over Africa.

Famous for its immense variety of fynbos and protees, don't miss the botanical garden, this reserve offers many walking and mountain bike trails. The climb to the top of Paarl Rock, 45 minutes from the lower car park or 15 minutes from the upper car park, is easy and impressive. In bad weather, beware of the orientation! For a panoramic view of the valley, take the Jan Phillips Mountain Drive along the reserve.

The National Art Gallery of South Africa is one of the fifteen or so Iziko museums. At the heart of this beautiful building, the permanent collection consists of paintings by South African, French, Dutch and Flemish artists, most of them from the 17th to 19th centuries. Part of the gallery, which is regularly renewed, exhibits numerous contemporary foreign works and photographs, as well as works by South African avant-garde artists.

Founded in 1825, this museum is the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa. Young and old alike will be seduced by the large marine mammals section, whose main attraction is a 20 m long blue whale skeleton, or the large dinosaur skeletons and the only stuffed quagga in the world. This species of Karoo zebra disappeared to general indifference in 1883, after the death of its last representative in an Amsterdam zoo.

The most exciting section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Bushmen. Taking note of the reservations expressed by the museum's current scientific team, you can admire the astonishing casts made in 1911. They look like living beings! That's the problem, because these casts were made by the museum's taxidermists on living individuals, supposedly representing "perfect savages".

Southern Africa is the richest region in the world in terms of rock paintings. Thousands of sites are listed, most of them inaccessible to the uninformed public. Fortunately, the authorities are gradually becoming aware of the importance of presenting and protecting this fabulous heritage. Imagine that the oldest paintings, discovered on rocks in the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia, are the work of artists who lived 27,000 years before our era, a hundred centuries before the painters of Lascaux! Constellation lovers, head to the Planetarium.

Its construction began in 1904, but was delayed by the Anglo-Boer War. The chapel was only started in 1908 and the transept was completed in 1936. The cathedral is not of great architectural interest, but note as you enter that Christ is black! Its historical interest: the first black Anglican Archbishop was ordained there in 1986, Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize 1984, President of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996. It was from there again that he organized a mass demonstration of civil disobedience by 30,000 people on Grand Parade in 1989.

Schreuderhuis is one of the oldest housing estates in the country, the restored houses cover the period from 1709 to 1929. The tour is interesting and well designed. It starts with the most rustic house, the one of the first settlers, and continues with more and more bourgeois and richly decorated houses. You have to cross the street to see house number 3. It is a fun tour because this neighborhood is like an open-air museum that tells the story of the history and art of living over the years and the different classes of people.

If we are interested in history where we set our steps, then we will have to discover this museum. The Huguenots make all the history of the town of Franschhoek, since their arrival in the 17th century. In the Huguenot museum, you will see the Bible that Pierre Joubert would have brought out of France in a loaf of bread. He himself left La Motte-d'Aigues in Vaucluse at the age of 24. Then he arrived in South Africa after a detour through Geneva and Rotterdam. In 1700, he owned 16,000 vines and 300 sheep. The historical panels were donated by the management of the Archives de France.

A copy of the Edict of Nantes and a complete list of the Huguenots of South Africa, with their French region of origin, can be found. During Jacques Chirac's visit to South Africa, a plaque was placed to mark the 400th anniversary of the Edict of Nantes, "symbol of tolerance and freedom".

If by chance you have the soul of a researcher, you can even submit your genealogical questions to the museum's management, who will do research. The main building was constructed in 1967 according to the plans of "Saasveld", the mansion built in Cape Town in 1791 by the French architect Louis-Michel Thibault.

At the rear of the building is the headquarters of the learned society The Huguenot Society, which anyone can join in order to receive the annual historical bulletin. In September 2002, the museum hosted a day-long event for distinguished members of the International Huguenot Conference.