Ceres is the administrative centre and largest town of the Witzenberg Local Municipality in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

Province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Ceres serves as a regional centre for the surrounding towns of Wolseley,

Tulbagh Tulbagh (), previously named Roodezand, then Land van Waveren later in 1804 named after Cape of Good Hope Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Cape Winelands ...

, Op-die-Berg and Prince Alfred Hamlet. It is situated in the ''Warmbokkeveld'' ( English: "warm antelope field") Valley about 170 km north-east of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Ceres is located at the north-eastern entrance to Michell's Pass and was the old route north between

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, which was later replaced by the N1 highway, which traverses the Breede River Valley to the south. Named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres, a name which is fitting as the valley in which the town is situated is extremely fertile and is a major producer of South Africa's

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

Geography and climate

Ceres experiences a typical

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

tempered by its altitude. The town experiences warmer temperatures in summer, due to its inland location with infrequent rainfall, however winters are cool to quite cold and wet, with frequent snowfalls on the surrounding higher-lying ground, rarely falling on the valley floor itself. Total annual precipitation averages 1088 mm, with average temperatures ranging from a February maximum of 29,9 °C to a July minimum of 2,4 °C. The ''Warmbokkeveld'' is climatically warmer than the surrounding highlands, which is known as the ''Kouebokkeveld'' ("cold antelope field"), with the latter often experiencing snowfalls in winter. Ceres is well known for

fruit juices Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such a ...

exported worldwide bearing the town's name. It is also famous locally for winter

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

and

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

residents flock to the town during winter to ski or simply play in the powder — something of a rarity for the otherwise mild climate they are used to — whilst in summer, people come to pick cherries at the "Klondyke" farm.

is one of the most stable parts of the world in seismic terms but on 29 September 1969 a massive shock shook the district without warning. The epicentre of the quake was on a major local structure called the Worcester fault, which had clearly been geologically active in the distant past but had not moved in over three hundred years of recorded history. Ceres was affected badly. Many old Cape Dutch buildings were damaged and some people died. The quake was strong enough to knock plaster off walls in

, a hundred miles (160 kilometres) away.

Notable people

* De Wet Barry, Rugby union player,

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

* Christiaan Barnard, first surgeon to perform a successful human-to-human heart transplant operation spent the early years of his medical practice in Ceres. * Ernst Joubert, Rugby player * Henry Francis Maltby, Writer and playwright * Raymond Herman Mordt, Rugby union player,

* Simon Rademan, Fashion designer and stylist * Breyton Paulse, Springbok rugby player * Ernst van Dyk, Wheelchair racer * John Villet, Springbok rugby player

Coats of arms

Municipal (1) — The Ceres municipal council assumed a pseudo-heraldic "coat of arms" in 1928. Western Cape Archives : Ceres Municipal Minutes (2 March 1928).The arms were depicted on
cigarette card
issued in 1931. The shield was quartered, and depicted (1) a sheaf of wheat on a red background, (2) a landscape scene showing a bridge across a river, (3) a tree on a sky blue background, and (4) a cornucopia on a green background. The motto was ''Loci dulcedo nos attinet''. Municipal (2) — The council assumed a proper coat of arms, designed by Ivan Mitford-Barberton and H. Ellis Tomlinson, in 1948.Western Cape Archives : Ceres Municipal Minutes (28 June 1948). This was in response to a Cape Provincial Administration circular asking municipalities to have their arms checked and, if necessary, re-designed, to make them heraldically correct. The new arms were registered at the Bureau of Heraldry in March 1974. The arms were : ''Vert, a fess wavy Argent, thereon a barrulet wavy Azure, over all a pale Argent charged with a representation of the goddess Ceres, vested Vert, holding in her dexter hand a sheaf of wheat and in her sinister a torch enflamed all proper; in chief a mural crown Gules''. The motto was the same as before. In layman's terms, the new design was a green shield with a silver/blue/silver wavy stripe across the middle, and a vertical silver stripe depicting a red mural crown and the figure of the Roman goddess Ceres.

Gallery

Image:Matroosberg new.jpg, Matroosberg in the Hex River Mountains on the south-eastern flank of the Ceres valley

References

External links