ICOMOS: Nederlands erfgoed in Zuid Afrika

 

Met  de ICOMOS lezing op 10 april 2013, ‘Traces of Dutch Religion in South Africa’, gaan wij terug tot de Nederlands sporen uit de VOC in Zuid Afrika. Sally Titlestad neemt ons mee naar een Lutherse kerk in Kaapstad. Jaap Evert Abrahamse vertelt hoe nog tijdens de Boerenoorlog, Nederlandse architecten vorm gaven aan de stedenbouw van het nieuwe Zuid Afrika en belicht de relatie met de Stelling van Amsterdam.

 

 

An Integrated Assessment of the Lutheran Church complex in Cape Town, South Africa

by Sally Titlestad

The Lutheran Church complex, in Strand Street Cape Town, is a humble landmark ensemble of vernacular architecture dating from the 1760s. It is the last remaining set of 18th century public and utilitarian buildings in the city and consists of the Church flanked by the Netherlands Consulate and a well-known museum of African gold.

Two years ago debate arose over proposed development abutting the Church. This inspired a re- evaluation of the significance of the resources and their meanings in the South African context. The complex is a surviving, authentic and intact part of an increasingly tenuous, but tough and resilient, underlying web of “ancient” (in South African terms) cultural landscape. It represents the origins of ‘modern’ and colonial settlement in South Africa, as well as being a marker of resistance against VOC oppression.

In her presentation Sally will show how legislative change and trans-disciplinary assessment has revealed the buildings, collection and archive as a set of resources so precious that they have now been protected as a National Heritage site. She will also present the ways in which they have the possibility of challenging accepted understandings of South African VOC history.

 

Dutch Architects in the South African Republic

by Jaap Evert Abrahamse

In the 19th century, the South African Republic was seen as a legal and moral successor of the Dutch Republic, that had long before lost its military and economic power and its leading role in international politics, as the English took over most international trade routes and London replaced Amsterdam as the main commercial centre. Many civil servants and other professionals left for theTransvaal to help build the new South African Republic, especially as tax revenues boomed when gold was found near Johannesburg. Among them were quite a number of architects and engineers. Sytze Wierda was appointed the head of the Public Works Department with Klaas van Rijsse as his assistant. Both were architects of Dutch origin. In the period until 1899, the beginning of the Second Anglo-Boer War, the department would design and construct many public buildings, such as the Government Building and the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, but also post offices, prisons, local government buildings, and many others. At the same time, the NZASM railway company built railway lines, station buildings and company towns, many churches were built in which a Dutch influence is clearly visible, and military works were realized outside Pretoria, that seem to be closely connected with the Stelling van Amsterdam, which was also built in this period.

 

Sally Titlestad has postgraduate degrees in the Humanities, and an MPhil in Architecture from University of Cape Town (UCT). She is an accredited Professional Heritage Practitioner, an independent senior researcher in Spatial History, and a specialist in the analysis of cultural landscapes. She teaches as a guest in Conservation Architecture at UCT, and mentors younger professionals in the Heritage assessment field in South Africa. Sally’s strong interest in international best practice and the integration of disciplinary methods has resulted in her working on a number of high profile projects. Her research interests are in spatialising social histories and depictions, archival readings and their relevance and exploring multicultural markings in the landscape.

Jaap Evert Abrahamse (1967) studied History of architecture and urbanism. In 2010, he obtained his PhD degree at the University of Amsterdam, with a thesis about the development of Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden Age. He was a researcher at the Planning Department of the City of Amsterdam, the Urbanism Department of Amsterdam Central District, and a teacher at Utrecht University. Since 2007, he is employed at the Cultural Heritage Agency, as a researcher of Urban History. He recently published books on the western urban fringe area of Amsterdam, the history of a seventeenth-century road and estate project in the province of Utrecht and the landscape of Amstelland. Apart from the project on Dutch architects in the South African Republic, he is currently working on the Atlas of Dutch Urbanization.

 

The lecture takes place from 19h30 till 21h30 Entrance is free for ICOMOS-members Non-ICOMOS members pay € 5,- for attending the lecture.

The evening starts from 18h30 with informal drinks and meal Costs for drinks and meal are € 10,- p.p.(to be payed on the spot) for members as well as for non-members.

Please report your attendance for laecture and drinks/meal beforehand at: icomac@icomos.nl