Kroonstad

About Kroonstad

For a few weeks in 1900, this quiet farming town on the Vals River was the capital of a nation. After Bloemfontein fell to British forces during the South African War, the government of the Orange Free State moved to Kroonstad, until the advancing army took the town in May of that year.

Today Kroonstad is a regional centre in the northern Free State, about halfway between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein on the N1, surrounded by maize and sunflower farms. Its centre keeps a handful of handsome early 20th-century buildings, led by the tall Dutch Reformed Mother Church on Church Square, along with the town hall and the old magistrates court.

Most travellers stop here on the long road between Gauteng and the Cape, but the town rewards a short stay. Walk around Church Square, visit the war cemetery that recalls the hard years of the camps, and relax at Kroonpark on the river, a resort with lawns, pools and chalets that makes a convenient overnight break.