| Date: | 1967 | | Client: | Trust? | Type: | Monument | |
| Style: | Monumental Modernism | | Status: | Extant |
Click to view mapCoordinates:
28°32'46.61" S 26°59'56.68" E | | Won on competition in 1964. Sod turning 20 September 1967. Tender awarded to the Welkom firm Welkom-konstruksie (Edms) Bpk. Consulting engineers Michal S Zakrzewski and Partners. Initial idea to construct this of iron and gold bearing rock mined in the Free State but later changed to off-shutter concrete. Initial costs estimated at R49 000. Final costs R61 445. Then State President CR Swart delivered the festival address on 16 December 1967 and unveiled the bronze memorial plaque. The opening ceremony with then State President JJ Fouche in attendance was on 10 October 1968.
As at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, a shaft of daylight falls directly onto the floor plaque on 16 December, to commemorate the Voortrekkers’ Day of the Covenant, renamed Day of Reconciliation in 1995.
Transcript of the Granite Plaque:
Die simboliek
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Hierdie Monument is opgerig ter nagedagtenis aan die Voortrekkers.
Die simboliek is veelsydig.
Die vyf suile simboliseer die trekke van Louis Trichardt, Hendrik
Potgieter, Gert Maritz, Piet Retief en Pieter Uys. Die opwaarts
strekkende lyne verbeeld die dinamiek, stryd en rusteloosheid van
die Trek. Die groepering versinnebeeld die ordeliewende gemeenskap
sowel as die walaer en die rondkappige vorm van die wa. Die
opswiepende horings suggereer nie slegs die os nie, maar ook die
vorentoe en boontoe beur na die hoër ideale van selfstandigheid
en vryheid.
Die waterbak, wat die suile met vyf geute verbind, versinnebeeld
die geloof van die Trekkers en die vloei van die water na buite, die
verspreiding van die Christelike godsdiens en beskawing.
Deur die opening in die waterbak val die lig van bo-op die bronsplaat
in die binneruim, sinnebeeld van die goddelike lig.
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The Symbolism
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This Monument has been erected in commemoration of the
Voortrekkers. The symbolism is complex.
The five columns symbolize the treks of Louis Trichardt, Hendrik
Potgieter, Gert Maritz, Piet Retief and Pieter Uys. The lines
extending skywards suggest the drive, struggle and restlessness
of the Trek. The grouping symbolizes the law-abiding community
as well as the wagon laager and the concave shape depicts the
wagon. The upward sweeping horns suggest not only the ox but
also the surge forward and upwards towards the higher ideals of
independence and freedom.
The water bowl, linking the columns with five chutes, symbolizes
the faith of the Trekkers, and the outward flow of the water the
spreading of Christian religion and civilization.
Through the opening in the water bowl light from above falls on
the bronze plaque in the courtyard, symbolic of the divine light.
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Read The Women at Winburg’s Voortrekker Monument by Walter Peters.
Books that reference Voortrekker Monument | Swart, Marius J (ed). 1989. Afrikanerbakens. Johannesburg: Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge. pg 117-119, 118 ill |
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