Discover Beaufort West

Beaufort West brings together a rich architectural heritage and a history that reaches deep into the Great Karoo. In the historic centre, at the exhibitions and on the edge of town, you will encounter different sides of the area. A self-guided walk takes you to historic buildings; the Karoo National Park and a rock art site nearby offer different points of interest. You can plan your trip according to whether architectural history, historical exhibitions or the themes of the surrounding area are of particular interest to you.

Architecture in the historic centre

In Beaufort West’s historic centre, early buildings with Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian features can be seen alongside eclectic, Romanesque, Cape Dutch, Gothic Revival, neoclassical and contemporary elements. This stylistic range gives the self-guided walk a clear focus: instead of centring on just one building, you can look out for the different forms visible side by side here.

Typical Karoo houses have also been preserved in Beaufort West. Together with the early buildings, they shape the view of the area’s architectural history. Visitors interested in architecture will find more than a single style to explore on a walk. You can discover this variety as you go, offering a different way to experience the destination than the historical exhibitions.

Exhibitions telling different stories

The old town hall is now part of the Beaufort West Museum. It houses an exhibition of awards presented to Professor Chris Barnard, who performed the world’s first heart transplant in 1967. This brings together a historic building in Beaufort West and an exhibition whose subject extends beyond architectural history.

A different story takes centre stage at Mission Church. Its permanent exhibition preserves personal memories of the Dutch Reformed Mission congregation of Beaufort West. It reaches back to the congregation’s forced relocation to a residential area for People of Colour in the late 1960s. For your trip planning, this means that the exhibitions focus on different subjects—from Professor Chris Barnard’s awards to the memories of a congregation and its forced relocation.

Karoo National Park and rock art in the surrounding area

The Karoo National Park, covering an area of 75,000 ha, lies on the edge of Beaufort West. Its location therefore differs from that of the historic buildings in the centre. If you would like to consider the national park as well as the town’s history when choosing your destination, this geographical context is a useful point of reference.

The rock art site near Nelspoort is also located in the surrounding area. It extends across a large area and includes hundreds of engravings. This adds another cultural and historical focus in the vicinity to the buildings and exhibitions in town. The park and the rock art site differ both in subject and in their stated locations; you can take these differences into account when planning the focus of your trip.

History reaches into the Great Karoo

The history of fossils also opens up a view of the wider region. In 1827, David Baird found the first reptile fossil near the then border town of Beaufort in the Great Karoo. The town was renamed Beaufort West in 1869. The area developed into one of the world’s most significant fossil sites of this kind. The sequence of events runs from the discovery near the then border town to the later renaming, showing that this history extends beyond today’s town centre.

When looking for a holiday apartment in Beaufort West, you can start by considering the different areas of interest: would you mainly like to include early architecture and the exhibitions in town in your trip plans, or are you also interested in the national park on the edge of town and the subjects found in the nearby and wider area? This question can help you decide what kind of trip you want, without conflating the different places or their respective histories.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Nelspoort, Merweville, Matjiesfontein, Prince Albert, Bergwater, Klaarstroom, Laingsburg, Leeu Gamka

For the regional travel overview: Central Karoo.