Groote Kerk

The mother church of the Dutch Reformed denomination in South Africa, standing near the Company's Garden in central Cape Town. A congregation has worshipped on the site since the seventeenth century, and the present building, with its distinctive tower, dates largely to a rebuilding completed in 1841. Inside, an elaborately carved pulpit supported by carved lions is regarded as a masterpiece of Cape woodwork. Historic tombstones and the graves of early Cape governors lie beneath and around the church, which remains an active place of worship.