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Color Paarl Pretty
Posted by Wilandre Johnson on 12 July 2021 12:30 PM CAT
In order to know where you are going it is good to know where you have come from. Part of Paarl’s unique and interesting history holds beautiful architectural buildings. A talented local artist has penned them down on paper in line-drawing style and it is available to you for free! Download and print out the drawings and have a good time colouring them in.
Engagement in creative activity has a way to create a space that makes one feel safe and comfortable. Your mind is blank other than what you’re doing at that very moment, colouring-in. Adult colouring-in has become quite a thing and we are turning to crayons and felt-tips for their soothing and therapeutic qualities. We hope that our drawings will help you beat the stress of covid-19 and provide some sort of art therapy.
Paarl has many examples of Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and Cape Dutch buildings dotted along our oak-lined 12km-long Main Street. It is one of the best-preserved 19th-century streets in South Africa.
We are the third oldest European settlement in SA. Our first inhabitants were the Khoikhoi and San people. The Cochoqua people lived in our Berg River Valley region. The Cochaqua were cattle herding people and among the richest of the Khoi tribes. They originally called Paarl Mountain, ‘Tortoise Mountain’.
The Dutch East India Company under the leadership of Jan van Riebeeck established meat trading relationships with the Khoikhoi people. In 1657, in search of new trading relationships inland, Abraham Gabemma saw a giant granite rock glistening in the sun after a rainstorm and named it ‘de Diamondt and de Peerlberg’ (Diamond and Pearl Mountain) from which our name, Paarl, was derived.
In 1687 Governor Simon van der Stel gave titles to the first colonial farmers in the area. In the following year the French Huguenots arrived and also settled on farms in our area. Our fertile soil and Mediterranean-like climate provided perfect conditions for farming. The settlers planted orchards, vegetable gardens and vineyards and this is how Paarl’s long and continuing history as a major wine and fruit producing area in SA started!
For more information about our history and our Heritage Trail, please visit our website at http://www.paarlonline.com/paarl-activities/paarl-heritage/ and follow us on social media at Visit Paarl.
Het Gesticht Church – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Press Building – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
no. 210 ‘De Woning’ – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Protea Bioscope – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Town Hall – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Art Deco-styled building – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Toringkerk – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Strooidakkerk – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Laborie Estate Manor House – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Holy Trinity Church – CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
