Pretoria

Municipality

Municipality: City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality includes the following areas:

Pretoria
Centurion
Ga-Rankuwa
Hammanskraal
Mabopane
Pienaarsrivier
Roodeplaat
Winterveld

Pretoria Tourism Bureau

Church Square
Pretoria

Phone number: 012-337-4430
Fax number: 012-326-2325
Email: Email inquiry
Web: See the website

Pretoria is named after the Pretorius family who settled here in the 1850s.

Events

Pretoria is host to the 19th FIFA World Cup. Matches will be played at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

Matches in Pretoria | Full schedule

Attractions

Also see the neighbouring towns

Pretoria offers all the attractions of a main city. Burgers Park is Pretoria's first park, established in 1882. The Fountains Nature Reserve was proclaimed in 1895, claimed to be the first in Africa. Around Church Square are several buildings built in the late 1800s style: Raadsaal (Council Hall of the Zuid-Afrikaanche Republiek), Palace of Justice, now home of the Supreme Court, Post Office, old Reserve Bank. Sammy Marks Museum is a Victorian period house of a sumptious lifestyle. Paul Kruger museum is in the house of President Paul Kruger of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. Melrose House, built in 1886, is an example of Victorian lifestyle. Pretora Art Museum hosts paintings of South African artists. The Pierneef Museum has an exhibit of the artist Pierneef. Van Wouw House was the home of sculptor Anton van Wouw, and exhibits some of his work. The Museum of Science and Technology has exhibits in which visitors can participate. Pretoria Zoo (the National Zoological Gardens) is the largest zoo in South Africa and with an aquarium. At the State Theatre, consisting of several theatres, productions range from opera and jazz to ballet, drama and cabaret. In the Wonderboom Nature Reserve, just north of the Pretoria Zoo, is a giant fig tree of about 1'000 years old, and which grows over an area of 0,5Ha.

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History

The first known settlement at this location was by the Ndebele tribe, in the early 1600s. They were refugees and originally known as the Matebele, which means Refugees. Around 1825 a second group of refugees settled here. They were Zulus under the leadership of Mzilikazi, who built a village on the banks of the stream (now called Apies River) running through the area. In 1832 a Zulu army drove these settlers away, and the fled north of the Limpopo RIver to the present Zimbabwe. In 1837 Dutch-Afrikaans pioneers arrived and found only a few Ndebele who were generally in hiding. He pioneers began farming on the banks of the stream. In 1854 Marthinus Wessel Pretorius bought portions of the farm Elandspoort and a church was built on the spot today known as Church Square. The first suburb was Arcadia on the foot of Meintjieskop, on which the Union Buildings were built. Pretoria became a municipality in 1903.

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Climate

Today's Weather Report for Pretoria

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