Fort de Bonne-Espérance

"City’s oldest building, the seventeenth-century fort’s courtyards and rooms were the centre of colonial administration The Cape of Good Hope was named by the Portuguese navigator Bartholomew Diaz when he rounded it in 1487, and the Portuguese, under the command of Antonio de Saldanha, landed in Table Bay, more or less by mistake, in 1503. However, it was not until 1652 that the first permanent European settlement in South Africa was established. The Dutch East India Company sent Jan Van Riebeeck with three ships and ninety men to create a base at the foot of Table Mountain, which would serve as a staging post where ships going to and from the East could out in for supplies and repairs. Van Riebeeck built a small clay and timber fort and laid out a garden for growing vegetables and fruit, which is still there today as a botanical garden. Although the early settlers were nervous about this strange country and its animals-they thought there were unicorns in the interior- -the base grew into Cape Town. A more substantial, five-pointed stone castle was built between 1666 and 1679 on Strand Street along the edge of the harbor-though the water has receded a long way since then. The Castle of Good Hope is South Africa's oldest survivind colonial building and the original bell-weighing just over 660 pounds (300 kg) -still hangs in the entrance tower. As a tribute to the castle's strength, it has never heard a shot fired in anger. The castle originally housed a church, bakery, workshops, living quarters, shops, and cells graffiti scrawled by prisoners can be seen in the dungeons. Under the British it was the government headquarters and since 1917 it has been used by the South African Defence Force. The Secunde's House is where the Dutch East India Company's deputy governor lived. The imposing battlements command fine views over Table Bay and there is a ceremonial changing of the guard every day. The castle also has a military museum and collections of Dutch furniture and paintings."