About 50 kilometres from Cape Town, just off the busy R27 West Coast Road, lies the town of Mamre. The town itself is unremarkable, being a dormitory town whose inhabitants work in Cape Town or nearby Atlantis and Darling. However, there is a most remarkable Moravian Mission Station on the western side of Mamre.
The area was originally known as Groene Kloof and in 1700 a meat contractor Henning Hùˆsing was given grazing rights by the VOC administration at Cape Town Castle. In 1701 the Governor, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, established a military post to protect the farmers from the marauding Khoisan. However, one should bear in mind that the Khoisan were merely trying to reclaim their ancient lands from the farmers who stole them in the first place!
Groene Kloof later became a cattle post of the VOC, which existed until 1791.
In 1808 the Moravian missionaries JF Kohrhammer and JH Schmitt, who were based at Genadendal (near Caledon) were given permission by Governor The Earl of Caledon to establish a Mission Station here. The government farm De Kleine Post and the adjoining Louwskloof and Cruijwagenskraal were given to the Moravians for this purpose. In 1854, the Moravians renamed the area as Mamre. The Moravian converts were, from 1808, allowed to settle on the land close to the church, the origins of the present day Mamre.
The church was completed in 1818. The complex today includes a school, cook house and long house (former barracks) and was declared...
