Castle of Good Hope

The Castle of Good Hope, often known as the Castle or Cape Town Castle, is a 17th-century bastion fort in Cape Town, South Africa. The fort was once built on the Table Bay shoreline, but due to land reclamation, it is now positioned inland. The Castle was designated a historical monument in 1936 (it is now a provincial heritage site), and after repairs in the 1980s, it is regarded as the best-preserved example of a Dutch East India Company fort.

The Castle, built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, is South Africa's oldest standing structure. It was erected to replace an older fort called Fort de Goede Hoop, which was built from clay and lumber by Jan van Riebeeck following his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. In 1654, two redoubts were erected at the mouth of the Salt River: Redoubt Kyckuit (Lookout) and Redoubt Duijnhoop (Duneheap). The Dutch outpost in the Cape was established to serve as a replenishment station for ships traveling between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies who needed to restock their supplies (now Indonesia)

Location: Cape Town