Durbanville Winelands, Cape Town North
When Jan van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape and began exploring inland, the patterns in the vegetation gave the hills to the North East a striped appearance – so they were called Die Tygerberg (Tiger Mountain) – not because of the more romantic story that leopard were seen and were thought to be tigers.
Durbanville began as the first overnight stop (outspan) for wagons headed out of Cape Town. In 1825, local farmers petitioned to build their own church and a small village grew up around the outspan and the church – called Pampoenkraal. In 1836 the name was changed to D’Urban but to prevent confusion with Durban in Kwazulu Natal, it was renamed Durbanville in 1886.
The village grew rapidly from the turn of the century and by 1970 became a Magisterial District with its own courthouse and goal. The courthouse complex still exists within the Rust-en-Vrede complex, although the town is now part of the Bellville District.
Despite the fact that Durbanville has grown tremendously in the past 30 years, it retains a considerable individuality and character with a rural atmosphere and architecture.
