Stellenbosch is South Africa’s second oldest town. It lies east of Cape Town in the province of Western Cape.
The central part of the town is preserved almost entirely. Most structures date from between 1775 and 1820. The town is well known for its shady streets lined with oak trees and its whitewashed buildings in the Cape Dutch style. Stellenbosch University was established in 1918. The town is also the center of South Africa’s wine industry. Wine has been produced in the district for more than 300 years.
The town was founded in 1679 by Governor Simon van der Stel and is named after him. Stellenbosch means Van der Stel’s Wood or Bush. Van der Stel founded it as a place to grow wheat, which was scarce in the Cape at that time. By 1682, Stellenbosch’s farmers were producing about one-third of the Cape’s wheat crop. Soon afterward, they planted their first vineyards. Stellenbosch became a municipality in 1840.
In the mid-1990’s, after the end of South Africa’s racial segregation system called apartheid, Stellenbosch was merged with the Black African township of Khayamandi and other nearby communities. In 2000, Stellenbosch, including Khayamandi, was merged with the towns of Franschhoek and Pniel, along with other nearby communities and rural areas, to form the Stellenbosch local municipality. The municipality has a population of 175,411.
