Pretoria · from the air
Pretoria from the Air
The Union Buildings, the Voortrekker Monument, Freedom Park and 70,000 jacarandas: what is underneath a lap of Loftus Versfeld.
Loftus Versfeld has been played on since 1897, one of the oldest sporting grounds in South Africa, named after Robert Loftus Versfeld, who started organised sport in the city. North of it the Union Buildings look down from Meintjieskop, designed by Herbert Baker in 1910, the seat of government and where Mandela was inaugurated in 1994. The Telkom Tower rises off Lukasrand to the south.
Further out stands the Voortrekker Monument, finished in 1949, and on the opposite hill Freedom Park, opened in 2007 to remember everyone the first monument left out. In spring the whole city turns purple: some 70,000 jacarandas, none of them native, all in bloom at once.