Slave Lodge, Cape Town

One of the oldest buildings in South Africa, the Slave Lodge stands at the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets, at the foot of the Company's Garden. It was built around 1679 by the Dutch East India Company to house the enslaved men, women and children who laboured in the Cape settlement, and for well over a century it was one of the most crowded and grim addresses in the colony.

Its long history mirrors the Cape's own. After slavery the building served in turn as government offices, the Supreme Court, a post office and a library, and its facade was remodelled in a graceful neoclassical style. Behind that elegant exterior, though, lies a story of confinement, disease and exploitation that the museum inside now confronts directly.

As part of the Iziko museum network, the Slave Lodge is devoted to the theme of slavery and human rights. Exhibits trace the trade in human beings across the Indian Ocean world, name individuals where records allow, and connect that past to present-day questions of freedom and dignity. Upper floors also hold collections of ceramics, silver and antiquities.

Practical details make it an easy stop on any walk through the historic centre. It sits directly opposite St George's Cathedral and beside the leafy Company's Garden, so it slots neatly into a morning of central sightseeing. Displays are indoor and well labelled, admission is modest, and a couple of unhurried hours are enough to absorb the main galleries. Few places in the city convey the human cost of the colonial economy as plainly, or as movingly, as this weathered old lodge. A visit here pairs naturally with the Company's Garden across the road and with the nearby District Six Museum for a fuller picture of the city's difficult past.