Our museum & historical buildings

Victoria West Museum

The displays in the two halls of the Victoria West Museum cover the palaeontology and natural history of the Karoo, and the cultural and sporting history of the town.

In pride of place in the fish fossil collection in the B.J. Kempen Hall is the 250-million year old Atherstonia seeleyi, which lived in this area at a time when the Karoo was wet and marshy. This is the oldest-known and best-preserved specimen of the species -- which had a shell of scales, rather than a backbone.

The Hall also includes a display about the riverine rabbit -- a species that’s found only in a limited part of South Africa (including in the Victoria West area), but which is in “extreme danger of extinction” (Wikipedia).

The cultural history hall boasts a collection of dolls dating from as far back as 1820.

Open Monday to Friday 7:45-1:00, and 2:00 to 4:45

46 Church Street
Telephone: 053 621 0413 or 082 852 8618
Website: Victoria West Museum

Dutch Reformed Church

The congregation of Victoria West’s Dutch Reformed Church was founded in 1843 - making this the 31st oldest DRC congregation in South Africa.

94 Church Street
Telephone: 053 621 0268 or 084 580 8347

St Johns Church, Victoria West. 1869. Photo by Lugerda via Wikimedia Commons St_John's_Church,_Victoria_West_1869

St. John’s Anglican Church

Designed by Sophia Grey (the first female architect in South Africa, and wife of the governor of the Cape Colony), St. John’s was inaugurated in 1869. It boasts beautiful stained glass windows -- including one dedicated to the memory of a bride who lost her life on her wedding day as a result of a flood that swept through the town in 1871.

54 Church Street
Telephone: 082 852 8618

Kruithuis (Powder Magazine)

This simple barrel-vaulted structure with its iron-clad door was built in 1850 as a safe place for local settlers to store gunpowder and weapons. Visit by arrangement - contact Victoria West Tours