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Paardekraal Monument
Krugersdorp, Gauteng

DEPARTEMENT VAN PUBLIEKE WERKEN - ZUID-AFRIKAANSCHE REPUBLIEK: Architect
Sytze Wopkes WIERDA: Design Architect

Date:1891
Type:Monument
Status:Extant

 


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Coordinates:
26°05'36.85" S 27°46'43.56" E

In the Krugersdorp museum there is a small model of it as well as an information sheet.

The info sheet reads:

During December 1880, under the leadership of the "threemanship", Paul Kruger, Piet Joubert and MW Pretorius, approximately 6,000 burgers decided to reinstitute the "Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek" and as a symbol of their unity built a cairn and rejected the British reign.

During 1881 the ZAR was restored after the battle of Majuba and 16 December 1881 the "Volksraad" decided on having a festival for the the nation at Paardekraal to commemorate their independence. MPW Pretorius donated the terrain to the then government and in 1889 under the impetus of Magistrate Human a decision was taken to erect a monument over the cairn.

A monument was designed by the state's architect S. Wierda and built by WV Vietch. On 16 December 1891 it was officially unveiled by Pres. Paul Kruger 1891. The cairn was removed in 1900 on the instruction of the British Authorities and thrown in the Vaal River. It was declared a National Monument in 1936.

On the terrain, but to the south of the monument, ox-drawn wagon cart's wheels have been cast in concrete.

(Submitted by Derek Walker via William Martinson, October 2021)

The Paardekraal Monument was declared a National Monument in 1936, and is a Provincial Heritage Site today. See SAHRIS.


Books that reference Paardekraal Monument

Bakker, Karel A, Clarke, Nicholas J & Fisher, Roger C. 2014. Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens : A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa. Pretoria: Visual Books. pg 35, 209
Hatfield, Denis. 1967. Some South African monuments. Cape Town: Purnell. pg 121-123
Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1989. Historical Buildings in South Africa. Cape Town: Struikhof Publishers. pg 178
Transvaal Publishing Co. 1906. Men of the Times : Old Colonists of the Cape Colony and Orange River Colony. Johannesburg, Cape Town and London: The Transvaal Publishing Co. pg 459 ill