2 Best Sights in Greyton, The Western Cape and Winelands

The neighboring village to Greyton is Genadendal, a Moravian mission founded in 1737. The first school in the interior opened its doors here in 1738. In 1838, the first Teachers Training College in South Africa was established. Seeing this impoverished hamlet today, it's difficult to comprehend the major role the mission played in the early history of South Africa. Some of the first written works in Afrikaans were printed here, and the Black community greatly influenced the development of the language as it is spoken today. None of this went down well with the white government of the time. By 1909 new legislation prohibited Black ownership of land, and in 1926 the Department of Public Education closed the settlement's teachers' training college, arguing that Black people were better employed on neighboring farms.

In 1980 all the buildings on Church Square were declared national monuments, but despite a number of community-based projects, Genadendal has endured a long slide into obscurity. You can walk the streets and tour the historic buildings facing Church Square. Ask at the Genadendal Mission Museum for somebody to show you around.

On the site of the original mission station, the Genadendal Mission Museum is spread through 15 rooms in three buildings. The collection includes items from early in the settlement's history, including the country's oldest pipe organ, brought in 1832. Wall displays examine mission life in the Cape in the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on the early missionaries' work.