Constantia is an affluent suburb of
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, South Africa, situated about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Cape Town. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious suburbs in South Africa. The Constantia Valley lies to the east of and at the foot of the
Constantiaberg
Constantiaberg is a large, whalebacked mountain that forms part of the mountainous spine of the Cape Peninsula in Table Mountain National Park, Cape Town, South Africa. It lies about 7 km south of Table Mountain, on the southern side of ...
mountain.
Constantia Nek
Constantia Nek is a low pass over the Table Mountain range in Cape Town, South Africa, linking Constantia to Hout Bay in the west. It is one of three passes connecting Hout Bay to the rest of the city, and, with Ou Kaapse Weg is one of the two ...
is a low pass linking to
Hout Bay
Hout Bay ( af, Houtbaai, meaning "Wood Bay") is a harbour town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of Cape Town. The name "Hout Bay" can ...
in the west. Constantia is a beautiful family orientated place for families to grow, with the leafy canopies of trees and top schools.
History
Constantia is one of the oldest townships of Cape Town and is famed for its wine.
The estate of
Groot Constantia
Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and provincial heritage site in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa.
"Groot" in Dutch and Afrikaans translates as "great" (as in large) in English.
History
In 1685, ...
(Great Constantia) was established in 1685 by the Dutch Colonial Governor of Cape Town,
Simon van der Stel
Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.
Background
Simon was the son of Adriaan van der Steland Maria Lievens, ...
. Other notable wine farms in the area include the oldest estate, Steenberg (Mountain of Stone), established in 1682,
Buitenverwachting (Beyond Expectations),
Klein Constantia (Small Constantia) and
Constantia Uitsig (View of Constantia). Before the twentieth century, the region was noted for its exports of
Vin de Constance a sweet dessert wine. Many years ago the trade was crippled by the arrival in the Cape of a parasite that attacked the vines.
In 1661, during the Dutch conquest of
Sumatra, Sheik Abdurachman Matebe Shah and his companion Sheikh Mahmoud were exiled to Constantia by the Dutch. Sheik Abdurachman is regarded as one of the three people that first brought Islam to South Africa.
The
kramat at Klein Constantia is built on the site that Sheik Abdurachman is thought to have died in 1681 or 1682.
About 220
slaves worked over a period of 150 years on the land planted with vineyards, fruit and olive trees at the time of Van der Stel.
[Simone Haysom, Constantia to Grassy Park: blamelessness and belonging, in Historical Approaches, vol. 5, 2007, p. 64.] A labour shortage after emancipation indicates that slaves moved away from the farms where they worked, but possibly stayed in the area. From the mid-1800s to the 1960s, Constantia remained a rural area of wine estates in which African and coloured residents constituted the majority. They were farmers, farm workers, domestics and fruit and flower sellers and lived in the areas of Strawberry Lane, Sillery Road, Spaanschemat River Road and Ladies Mile Road.
In 1961 Constantia was zoned as a White Group Area under the
Group Areas Act
Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system o ...
. In the late 1960s inhabitants classified as coloured or African were forcibly removed to areas in the
Cape Flats
The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lie ...
like
Mitchell's Plain
Mitchells Plain is a large Township (South Africa), township located within the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa and situated about from the Cape Town city centre. It is one of South Africa's largest residential areas and contains ...
,
Manenberg and Lotus River. On Heritage Day 2009, a plaque remembering the Strawberry Lane community was unveiled by Cape Town's mayor
Dan Plato
Daniel Plato (born 5 October 1960), known as Dan Plato, is a South African politician and a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since January 2022, previously serving from June 2011 until October 2018. He is the former mayor of Cap ...
.
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher; his sister is Carol Thatcher.
His early career ...
, the son of
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, and
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, (born 20 May 1964), styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer, author, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and is the mate ...
, the brother of
Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
, both lived in Constantia. Mark's house is now owned by the Sahara Group. The historic Tarrystone House, once owned by
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, (born 20 May 1964), styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer, author, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and is the mate ...
was listed for sale at R80 million.
Wine
The area is a major tourist hub outside of the central city area. Constantia is a well-known wine-producing area and one of the oldest in the southern hemisphere. It is home to at least ten wine farms, eight of which are included in an official wine route. Numerous operators offer tours of the Constantia wine route where visitors can take part in wine tastings at the farms. In addition to wine, many Constantia estates also include fine dining restaurants offering both local and international fare.
Many of the homesteads along the wine route display Baroque and Cape Dutch architectural styles.
Education
Schools
* Norman Henshilwood High School
*
American International School of Cape Town
The American International School of Cape Town (AISCT) is a private, non-profit, co-educational institution founded in 1997. The school educates 500 students from 50 countries, ranging in age between 2 and 18 years and instructed by teachers from ...
[Home]
(). American International School of Cape Town
The American International School of Cape Town (AISCT) is a private, non-profit, co-educational institution founded in 1997. The school educates 500 students from 50 countries, ranging in age between 2 and 18 years and instructed by teachers from ...
. Retrieved on August 8, 2015. "42 Soetvlei Avenue Constantia 7806 South Africa"
*
Herzlia Constantia
* Constantia Primary School
* Constantia Waldorf School
*
Reddam House Constantia
*
The Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology
Coat of arms
The Constantia Valley Local Council, which existed from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, registered a coat of arms at the
Bureau of Heraldry
Bureau ( ) may refer to:
Agencies and organizations
*Government agency
*Public administration
* News bureau, an office for gathering or distributing news, generally for a given geographical location
* Bureau (European Parliament), the administrat ...
in October 1992.
[http://www.national.archsrch.gov.za]
The arms were : ''Argent, an eagle displayed Sable, charged on the breast with an hour glass in fess Or; a chief nowy gabled Gules''. The crest was a silver demi-stag with golden antlers and black wings emerging from a red mural crown. The motto was ''Terra hereditas nostra''.
References
External links
Constantia Valley
{{Authority control
Suburbs of Cape Town
Wine regions of South Africa
1684 establishments in the Dutch Empire