Theme Week South Africa – Bloemfontein

22 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Old Presidency © Janek Szymanowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

Old Presidency © Janek Szymanowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

Bloemfontein (Afrikaans and Dutch previously “fountain of flowers” or “blooming fountain;” also known as Bloem) is the capital city of the province of Free State of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa’s three national capitals (the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital). Bloemfontein is the sixth largest city in South Africa. Bloemfontein was popularly and poetically known as “the city of roses”, owing to the abundance of these flowers and the annual rose festival held there. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning “place of cheetahs“. Bloemfontein has since 2011 formed part of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, having previously been part of the Mangaung Local Municipality.   read more…

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