Pretoria is a city of jacaranda tree-lined avenues, fascinating architecture and many historic monuments. The general lifestyle is part historic and conservative and part young and reative. The Union Buildings in Church Street are situated in beautiful gardens. They were designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built to house the Government Ministerial Offices. The Voortrekker Monument includes huge figures of the Great Trek leaders, surrounded by a laager of life-size ox-wagons. The National Zoological Gardens in Boom Street has a wide variety of animals in open-air enclosures. The Kruger House, built in 1884, is a house museum, in that it attempts to recreate the ambience of an historic period. Adjacent to the Kruger Museum is the former Bantu Commissioner’s Office (BCO) building, better known as gaMohle – “The Beautiful Place”.

Church Square has always been the hub of Pretoria, although it was initially called Market Square. This was where the first church, a mud-walled building, was built. It burnt down in 1882 and was replaced by a much grander structure. The Square is home to a bronze statue of Paul Kruger.

Church Square, founded in 1855, was designed by the brothers Devereaux, the initial town planners. The first church on the square (1857),burned down in 1882. This resulted in a second Gereformeerde Church being built in 1884-85 but this was demolished in 1904-05. The Palace of Justice forms part of the northern façade. Designed at the end of the 19th century in the typical Italian Renaissance style, it is now the headquarters of the Gauteng Provincial Division of the Supreme Court.

Anton van Wouw’s statue of Paul Kruger occupies center stage. While the bronze figure of Kruger and the sentries were cast in Italy at the turn of the century, it was only in 1954 that they were installed in their rightful place. The Ou Raadsaal (old Government Building) on the southern side of the square was designed by Sytze Wierda and erected by Scotsman JJ Kirkness in 1887. Parades are held at the square on Wednesdays.