Pretoria (officially also Tshwane since the 2000 renaming controversy, though most still use the name Pretoria for the historic city) is South Africa's executive capital (the seat of the national government and the President's official residence, Union Buildings) and the capital of Gauteng province, a city of 750,000 in the Apies River valley 50 km north of Johannesburg at 1,338 m altitude. The city was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius (son of the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, who defeated the Zulu kingdom at the Battle of Blood River 1838) as the capital of the South African Republic (ZAR) — the Boer republic that controlled the Witwatersrand gold fields until the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) in which Britain defeated the Boers at enormous cost (the British pioneered the modern concentration camp during this war, interning 115,000 Boer civilians of whom 27,000 died, mostly children). Paul Kruger (Oom Paul), the legendary ZAR president, lived in Pretoria — his house is now the Kruger House Museum. The Voortrekker Monument (1949, the most controversial monument in South Africa — a massive granite fortress-style structure built by Afrikaner nationalists to commemorate the Great Trek and the Battle of Blood River, with an annual 16 December sunbeam event where light falls through a hole in the dome to illuminate an inscription) is one of the most powerful and contested architectural expressions of Afrikaner nationalism. Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first democratic president at the Union Buildings on 10 May 1994 — the ceremony was attended by 100,000 people and watched by 1 billion globally. The city is called the "Jacaranda City" for the 70,000 jacaranda trees (all descended from 2 trees imported from Brazil in 1888) that turn the city purple in October-November, making it one of the most photographically spectacular urban environments in Africa during bloom season.
The Union Buildings (1910-1913, Herbert Baker, South Africa's most significant building) sit on a 56 m koppie (hill) above Pretoria with the finest view of the Jacaranda-lined city — the amphitheatre where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated on 10 May 1994 (100,000 spectators, 4 air forces flew over in salute) has a bronze statue of Mandela (9 m tall, 2013) and the gardens are open to the public; the building still functions as the President's office.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideChurch Square (the historic centre of Pretoria) has the Paul Kruger statue (1899, Anton van Wouw, the bronze figure of the ZAR president addressing the crowd) surrounded by the Palace of Justice (where the Rivonia Trial took place in 1963-64 — Mandela and 7 co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment), the old Raadsaal (parliament building, 1890) and the Standard Bank Building (1899) — the finest ensemble of South African Republic architecture.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Paul Kruger House Museum (the original home of ZAR President Paul Kruger, 1884-1902) has two period-furnished rooms where Kruger received foreign dignitaries and the famous two lions at the gate (gifts from a foreign head of state); Kruger left Pretoria in 1900 as British forces captured the city and never returned, dying in exile in 1904 in Switzerland; the house captures the Boer Republic at its most confident.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Pretoria National Zoo (1899, one of the oldest and largest zoos in Africa, 85 ha) has over 3,000 animals — the African collection (white rhinoceros, African elephant, hippopotamus, black-maned Kalahari lion, cheetah, wild dog) is the most impressive in a city zoo in South Africa; the cable car provides aerial views over the zoo; the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) planted by President Kruger in 1895 is still growing.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHatfield (the university suburb, home to the University of Pretoria) has the liveliest restaurant and bar strip in the city — the Hatfield Square and surrounding streets have craft beer bars (Friar Tuck, Hatfield Square bars), the Barcelos Chicken chains and several excellent South African restaurant groups; Castle Lager or Windhoek craft beer with a boerewors wrap and chakalaka is the Pretoria night.
The Voortrekker Monument (1949, Gerard Moerdijk, 40 m tall granite structure) commemorates the Afrikaner Great Trek (1835-1854, when Boer settlers left the British Cape Colony and trekked into the interior) — on 16 December (Day of Vow / Day of Reconciliation) a sunbeam passes through an aperture in the dome at exactly noon to illuminate the inscription "Ons vir jou, Suid-Afrika" (We for you, South Africa); the marble frieze inside depicting the Great Trek is the longest historical frieze in the world (24 panels, 92 m long).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFreedom Park (on the hill adjacent to the Voortrekker Monument, a deliberate architectural dialogue between Apartheid-era memory and post-Apartheid memory) is the national monument to all who died for South Africa — from the San people of the Stone Age to the soldiers of the Anglo-Boer War, the victims of Apartheid and the freedom fighters of the ANC; the Wall of Names, the symbolic eternal flame and the amphitheatre look directly toward the Voortrekker Monument across the valley.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cullinan Mine (50 km east of Pretoria, 1 hr drive) is where the largest gem-quality diamond ever found was discovered (January 1905) — the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond was cut into 9 major stones, the 2 largest of which (the First and Second Stars of Africa) are now in the British Crown Jewels; the surface tour visits the open-cast section and the diamond cutting factory; occasional gem-quality diamonds are still found.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePretoria is the rugby capital of South Africa — the Blue Bulls (the Super Rugby team) play at Loftus Versfeld (the most intimidating home ground in South African rugby); if no match, the Barnyard Theatre in Menlyn Park has the long-running South African musical dinner show tradition; alternatively, the Menlyn Maine lifestyle precinct has the best cocktail bars in Gauteng.
The Ditsong Natural History Museum (formerly Transvaal Museum) has the finest natural history collection in southern Africa — the Austin Roberts Bird Collection (the definitive southern African bird taxidermy collection), the mammal hall with the Cape lion (extinct 1858) skull, and most famously the Sts 5 "Mrs Ples" skull (2.5 million year old Australopithecus africanus fossil, found in 1947 at the Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 70,000 jacaranda trees of Pretoria (all descended from 2 trees imported from Brazil in 1888 by a nurseryman) bloom in October-November in purple-blue flowers that turn the entire city purple — Herbert Baker Street, Church Street, Arcadia and the Union Buildings gardens are the finest locations; the city also has the legend that if a jacaranda flower falls on your head you will pass your exams (a student tradition).
The Sammy Marks Museum (Zwartkoppies Farm, 20 km east of Pretoria) is a remarkably preserved Victorian mansion of the Sammy Marks family — Marks was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant who became the wealthiest industrialist in the South African Republic, friend of Paul Kruger and founder of South Africa's first distillery; the furnished interiors (1885-1905) are the finest Victoriana in Gauteng.
The Union Buildings gardens at dusk — the formal rose gardens, the Mandela statue, the view of the jacaranda-lined Meintjies Kop and the sunset over the Highveld plateau; a final braai at one of the nearby Arcadia restaurants (many have al fresco areas with Union Buildings views), a bottle of Shiraz from the Swartland or Stellenbosch and the Highveld twilight — cool, clear and vast.