Oude Kerk Volksmuseum,
Tulbagh

The Oude Kerk Volksmuseum, built in 1743 and established in 1925, is one of the oldest museums in the Western Cape and focuses on local history. The Museum is housed in four buildings, each with its own focus area.

The Oude Kerk (Old Church), one of the last surviving cruciform churches built by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) still in its original form with a unique collection of Cape furniture and restored historic cemetery, amongst others the original table on which the surrender of the Dutch to the British was signed in 1806.  

The Earthquake Museum commemorates the devastating 1969 Earthquake.

The Victorian House Museum, an excellent example of a rural Victorian house, depicts the lifestyle of a rural middle-class family in the Victorian era.

The Christo Coetzee Art Museum at the Victorian: The museum showcases  Christo Coetzee’s art that has been linked to avant-garde movements such as “Art Informel”, “Assemblage” art and “Neo-Baroque” in Paris and elsewhere abroad since the 1950s. Since the 1960s his work has formed an important part of the artistic vanguard in South Africa where he periodically lived from 1968 and moved to Tulbagh in 1972. In 2020 the collection of Herman Binge from Christo Coetzee’s home which previously served as a gallery of the artist’s work was made available to the Oude Kerk Volksmuseum. A selection from this collection was relocated to The Victorian House Museum at 14 Church Street to share the artist’s work with visitors to the town where he lived the last three decades of his life.

The Pioneer House Museum depicts the lifestyle of a typical working-class family in the period circa the 1800 – 1920s.