Pacaltsdorp
suburb of George, South Africa
Pacaltsdorp is a suburb of George, Western Cape. In the Apartheid era, it was the coloured township associated with George but administrated independently. The N2 highway provided the natural boundary between the two, enforced by a curfew.
The mission station Hoogekraal was named Pacaltsdorp after the death of the German-speaking missionary of Czech origin, the Reverend Charles Pacalt in 1818. He was invited by Kaptein Dikkop, leader of a Khoikhoi tribe living in the area. He built up a congregation of about 300 Khoekhoen, slaves and free labourers.
Buildings
A number of historic buildings are preserved - The Stone Church - a Norman-style church, originally built from stone, yellowwood, glass and clay. Rev Pacalt's second mission cottage was constructed in approximately 1813. Consisting of sod walls, a thatch roof and cow-dung floor, it was declared a national monument in 1976. William Anderson built the first manse, a two-storied building with thick stone walls and abundant yellowwood, it was also declared a national monument in 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pacaltsdorp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.