The best museums South Africa

The museum has three boats, including the Ulundi ship with its 75-year-old and steam engines. Inside, the classic exhibition of navigation instruments and sailors' clothing.

Simon's Town is home to one of the largest naval bases in the southern hemisphere. It was the British who built the port facilities, which have been used since 1957 by the South African Navy. The headquarters of the South African Navy Force, installed in the fort, is coupled with the listening centre in Silvermine. Guided tours only take place between 10:30 and 15:30, but you can enter freely. Another "big ear" had been implanted by the South African Army in Bob Denard's pilot farm in the Comoros.

Most of the buildings on Church Street are privately owned, but many remain in public ownership. The oldest is the Oude Kerk Volksmuseum, built in 1743, opposite the Tourist Office. Note the thick walls that give this former church a pleasant coolness. A few dozen meters further on, you'll find the house of Huguenot Danie Theron, right next to the Paddagang gardens, where lovers of greenery will be delighted to stop off. An island of freshness, nicknamed "frog alley", the rendezvous of frogs during the mating season.

"Connecting people, communities and cultures through the experience of art" is the mission of the Worcester Art Museum. Academic partnerships and art workshop classes are also organized. Visiting this interesting open-air folk arts and traditions museum allows you to learn about the ways of life in the surrounding countryside. You will understand the making of wool, tobacco or alcohol, all worked in "live". This stage is very well done for children.

The former presbytery of 1714, formerly the Huguenot Museum, now houses Dutch antiquities and objects that trace Paarl's history. So the history certainly, but also the daily life of the inhabitants. It would not be surprising to find in this museum a citrus press or a vegetable grater relegated to the title of antique and good to be exhibited! It's always interesting when you get somewhere to start with the museum of the history of the city, it can help to understand a lot of things and to go through it differently.

We cross Murray and we borrow Parsonage Street until the Old Residency Gate, the city judge's former residence: Here is the illustration - like its neighbor Reinet House - of a primitive version of the Dutch style of Cape (early nineteenth century), on a structure called «H». It is now a museum of history with its guns from the Anglo-Boer War and its gallery of memories to recall the contemporary exploits of the South African army (Tripolitaine, campaign of Italy). Take Murray St. to the left direction Church Street.

Get off Church Street, cross Somerset and enter the Old Library museum home to the Fossil Gallery Lex Bremner: a skull and lower jaw is dated 230 million years. Through the meagre explanatory records, we learn that these proliféraient reptiles in the region are about 100 million years before the dinosaurs. Finish the visit while admiring a spécimen specimen as well as a defence and elephant femur, and the gallery of homage to the leader Robert Sobukwe, native of the city.

The Moffat couple stayed here before taking his position at the mission of Kuruman. The time to give birth to Mary, who will become David Livingstone. See the massive bronze bell from Cap en route to announce religious services, the organ offered by Queen Victoria to Griqua, photos of the last chef and his daughter, Princess Aletta. The letter sent by Livingstone to his parents will read the portrait of the woman he will marry: " Not romantic goal has matter of fact lady ". The little story tells us that it was in this house that the explorer decided to delete the last letter from his name (Livingston) because he did not like the Griqua whistling the final "e".

The building that houses the museum was once the seat of the government of the New Republic. Inaugurated in November 1884, the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly was held on 1 June 1885. The collections give a very complete overview of the various attempts of the Boer to establish their own republics… and the reasons for their failure. Fine meditation for observers of today's South African policy!

This 1801 theatre was sold to the Dutch Protestant church in 1839 and became a place of worship, exchange, school for young people and a community centre for slaves. The church was attended by Christians as well as Muslims from Bo Kaap and District Six. The cellars of the church were rented to wine merchants. The graffiti reads: "There is a spirit above and a spirit below, the spirit above is that of happiness, the spirit below is that of unhappiness, the spirit above is divine, the spirit below is that of wine! »

Between the Old Synagogue, the first one built in South Africa in 1863, and the Great Synagogue, built in 1905, as well as the Albow Centre, which includes the Cape Town Holocaust Centre and the Israel Abrahams Hall: the museum is a futuristic design building where the numerous interactive installations tell the story of the Jewish families who arrived in South Africa in the different centuries and of their integration in the colony. Coffee and gift shop inside the complex.

This house was bought by Irma Stern's parents in 1927. The South African painter of German origin lived here for almost 40 years until her death in 1966. The house is decorated with many handicrafts that she collected during her travels in Africa. Her canvases, plated on the walls repainted in red, green or blue, are displayed in the living room, the dining room and her studio. During the visit, one discovers the astonishing and colourful work of an adventurous woman who dared to travel in Africa, Zanzibar, Senegal and Congo during the Second World War, and who brought back portraits, landscapes and illustrated travel diaries. In Zanzibar, Irma Stern describes Indian women in purdah and Arab men in turban and white dresses, as well as the abundance of fresh produce in the colourful markets. You have to go there to admire African Woman with Children, Rich Old Arab or The Hunt, painted in 1926. It is also an opportunity to discover part of Mrs. Stern's collection of primitive art, the centrepiece of which is a caryatid altar seat from the school of the African master of Buli, fashioned, according to experts, between 1840 and 1860. There are no more than twenty such objects in the world, counting the pieces on display at the British Museum and the MET in New York. In 2011, a painting by the artist was acquired in London in an auction for about 5 million dollars! This is marked as a record for a South African artist.

Inaugurated in 2005, this beautiful museum of contemporary art opened by the famous South African family offers more than 350 works from the private family collection from 1940 to 1970. You will find local artists, but also works by Rodin or Kathe Kollwitz. The collections are carefully selected. Above all, the museum's architecture and its pretty café are worth a visit. The Ruppert is part of an interesting event dynamic and now offers yoga classes at the museum every Thursday in the Marker Studio.