Pretoria is a city of Jacaranda-lined avenues, fascinating architecture and many historic monuments. The general lifestyle is part historic and conservative and part young and creative. The Union Buildings, in Church Street, are situated in beautiful gardens. They were designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built to house the Government Ministerial Offices.

The Voortrekker Monument includes huge figures of the Great Trek leaders, surrounded by a laager of life-size ox-wagons. There is also a Voortrekker Museum and a restaurant. The Kruger house, built in 1884, is a house museum, in that it attempts to recreate the ambience of an historic period. Adjacent to the Kruger Museum is the former Bantu Commissioner’s Office (BCO) building, better known as gaMohle – “The Beautiful Place”. 

Church Square, founded in 1855, was designed by the brothers Devereaux, the initial town planners. The first church on the square (1857) burned down in 1882. A second Gereformeerde Church was built in 1884-85, but this was demolished in 1904-05. The Palace of Justice forms part of the northern façade. Designed at the end of the 19th century in the typical Italian Renaissance style, it is now the headquarters of the Gauteng Provincial Division of the Supreme Court. Anton van Wouw’s statue of Paul Kruger occupies centre stage. While the bronze figures of Kruger and the sentries were cast in Italy at the turn of the twentieth century, it was only in 1954 that they were installed in their rightful place.

The Pretoria Art Museum, in Schoeman Street, Arcadia, houses a collection of South African art including works by Van Wouw, Oerder and Pierneef.

The Klapperkop Fort and Military Museum, in Johan Rissik Drive, were built in 1898 by the old “Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek”, whose military history is depicted in the Military Museum alongside the fort. The Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum, situated in Silverton, on the eastern bank of the Moreleta Spruit, consists of a restored house and farmyard of the pioneer period. The Sammy Marks Museum is part of a historical complex that comprises the mansion, gardens, outbuildings and part of Mark’s original farm, Zwartkoppies.

Mamelodi township, situated about 20 km east of Tshwane, has various heritage attractions and is well worth a visit. The Tswaing Meteorite Crater, 30km north of Onderstepoort, was formed some 220 000 years ago when a meteorite the size of half a football field slammed into the earth’s crust. The huge crater is one of the best-preserved meteorite impact craters anywhere in the world.