City of Roses
Free State, South Africa
Bloemfontein, the City of Roses, is a modern city in the midst of a vast rural area. The beginnings of the town go back to 1840, when Johannes Nicolaas Brits arrived here with a Boer Trek and started a farm. Because the spring on his plot was covered with wild flowers, he called the farm Bloemfontein, meaning ‘flowering spring’.
In 1846 Bloemfontein was officially founded by British army Major Henry Douglas Warden as a British outpost. Besides its function as capital of the Free State Province, Bloemfontein plays an important role as the third capital of South Africa, as it is the seat of the South African Supreme Court.
Background
After its official foundation, the place soon grew into a bigger settlement, and became the capital of the newly founded province ‘Oranje Vrystaat’. Some administration buildings were erected, and today the many well preserved historical buildings characterise the centre of town.
The South African National Congress (ANC, now the ruling party) was founded in Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912 to defend the rights of the black majority. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning ‘The place where cheetahs dwell’.