 |
 |
 | |||||||
 |
 |
 | |||||||
| |||||||||
 |
 |
 | |||||||
 The farm Boschendal (which means "wood and dale") was granted to Jean Le Long in 1685. A fellow Huguenot, Abraham de Villiers bought it in 1715 together with adjacent land belonging to Nicolas de Lanoy. There is evidence that Jean de Villiers built a house in about 1746 on the site of the present Manor House - a wall cupboard in the back bedroom is supposed to come from the earlier house. The Manor House was rebuilt by Paul de Villiers, Jean's youngest son, whose initials and those of his wife, Anna Susanna Louw, appear on the front gable with the date 1812, marking the height of the family's prosperity. Boschendal is one of the most imposing farmhouses at the Cape. The front gable, with its wavy outline ending in urns reflects both the baroque and neo-classical tradition at the Cape. Boschendal is a typical H-shaped house with an old pomegranate tree in the east courtyard. All the windows have external wooden shutters. Inside the house a yellowwood and teak screen, divides the reception area from the rooms behind it. The ceiling and floorboards are made of yellowwood and the interior doors have yellowwood panels set into teak frames. Passages were uncommon in these houses and bedrooms were inter-leading. The kitchen was at the back of house with a built-in oven and stairways to the loft.  During the restoration of Boschendal in 1973 painted friezes were discovered on the walls and recent scrapings have exposed details of even more layers. These paintings might have been the work of itinerant artists or resident slaves two hundred years ago. With the re-opening of Boschendal in 1976 the manor house was furnished according to old inventories and is still one of the few authentically furnished farmhouses open to the public at the Cape. Opening hours: 09:30 - 17:00 daily |
