Calvinia is a regional town in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

named after the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

religious reformer

Jean Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

. The town falls under the

Hantam Local Municipality Hantam is an administrative area in the Namakwa District of Northern Cape in South Africa. Hatam is a Khoi name that means "mountains where the bulbs grow". The municipality is named after the Hantam Mountains found in the area. Main places Th ...

which forms part of the

Namakwa District Municipality Namakwa is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Namakwa is Springbok and the region is also known as Little Namaqualand. The majority of its 108,118 people speak Afrikaans (2001 Census). The district ...

. The Calvinia district is part of the Great

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

region of

. The town is just south of the Hantam mountains on the banks of the Oorlogskloof (meaning "War Ravine") River. Calvinia enjoys 80% starlight and is renowned for its kaleidoscope of spring wildflowers coinciding with the

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

wildflower spectacle. An asteroid (

1245 Calvinia 1245 Calvinia ( ''prov. designation'': ) is a stony Koronian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 26 May 1932, by South African astronomer Cyril Jackson at the Union Observatory ...

) is named after the town.

History

The earliest known people living in the area were

Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...

people. The first Europeans in the area were farmers who took their livestock to the area in the 1750s. On 19 January 1847, at a meeting on the farm Tygerhoek, a new

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

congregation was founded for the Hantam region. In 1848 the congregation bought 1,200 hectares of the farm Hoogekraal (Ramskop) from Abraham van Wyk. The name Hantam is derived from the

word !Han=ami, which refers to a plant with edible roots (

Pelargonium ''Pelargonium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that includes about 280 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly called geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. '' Geranium'' is also the botanical name and common name of a separ ...

bifolium, in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

"uintjies"). !Han=ami means "where the red bulbs grow". The first reverend, N.J. Hofmeyr, proposed that the church be named after

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

. On 30 October 1851 the town was officially named Calvinia. It became a municipality in 1904.

Geography and Climate

Calvinia is located at (-31.47500, 19.77278). The town is 301 kilometers (470 kilometers by tar road) north 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 ...

and lies at an altitude of 970 meters. The average summer temperature is 22°C, with peaks above 40°C. The average winter temperature is 10°C but can fall to -8°C. On the surrounding mountains, snow falls regularly. This was where Abraham Esau garnered the support of the "Coloured" community to fight for the British against the Boers during the Boer War.

Culture

is the main language spoken in Calvinia. The principal religion of the population is

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Attractions

The Calvinia Museum is housed in the former

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

styled Jewish

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

built in 1920. The museum portrays the lives of the early European settlers. It displays a cedarwood horsemill and mounted Cape fat-tailed,

Merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

and

Dorper The Dorper is a South African breed of domestic sheep developed by crossing Dorset Horn and the Blackhead Persian sheep. The breed was created through the efforts of the South African Department of Agriculture to breed a meat sheep suitable to ...

sheep. Unusual specimens such as a 4-legged ostrich and genetically anomalous sheep can also be viewed. The Akkerendam Nature Reserve is located three kilometers north of Calvinia. The reserve offers unique flowers and two hiking trails cross the Hantam mountains. The indigenous and rare sterboom (literally translated "star tree")(Cliffortia arboreais) can be seen here. Th
Hantam Meat Festival
an agricultural show and great barbecue (

"braai"), takes place every year in late August. Th
Boekhuis
(translated "Book House") was built in 1860 by Jacobus Nel van der Merwe in

Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...

style with a concave-convex gable. This historical T-shaped house in Water Street is made available for the exclusive use of writers.

Education

The town has four public schools: * Hantam Secondary School * Calvinia High School * Hantam Primary School * Calvinia Primary School All four public schools also have boarding houses for both boys and girls.

Famous residents

Rona Rupert Rona Rupert née Davel (7 February 1934 – 25 August 1995) was a South African author. In 1976, she received the C.P. Hoogenhout Award. Biography Born in Calvinia, South Africa. Her father was a lecturer of Afrikaans and Dutch, before the fami ...

is the author of 33

books for children and young people.

External links

Calvinia in the Karoo, South Africa

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Hantam Local Municipality Karoo Populated places established in 1813 1851 establishments in the Cape Colony