Tulbagh Church Street

Church Street has thirty-two buildings declared national monuments, which is the densest such concentration in South Africa, and almost none of them stand as they did in 1969. On 29 September that year an earthquake of magnitude around 6.3, one of the most damaging in the country's recorded history, struck the Tulbagh valley and wrecked the street; nine people died in the wider district. What followed was an unusual decision - rather than clear and rebuild in modern style, the town undertook a decade-long restoration returning the houses to their eighteenth and nineteenth-century Cape Dutch and Victorian forms, using old photographs and surviving fabric. The result is a street that is simultaneously authentic in design and largely reconstructed in material, which is a distinction worth knowing while walking it. Several buildings house small museums; the old church of 1743 is at the top.

What you actually see

• The thirty-two monuments - the densest concentration on any street in the country.
• The 1969 earthquake - a magnitude 6.3 event that destroyed almost all of it.
• The restoration decision - a decade of rebuilding to pre-quake form rather than modernising.
• The 1743 church - the oldest building at the head of the street.

When to go

September to April. Two hours to walk the street with museum stops.

Honest expectations

Most of what you see is careful reconstruction after 1969, not untouched original fabric - that is the story, not a flaw. Museums keep short and irregular hours. The town is small with limited food options midweek.

Nearby

The Tulbagh wine farms surround the valley; Ceres is over Michell's Pass.