Architecture

The most visible influence of classical antiquity upon Africa is in the field of architecture. Classical architecture, with its qualities of monumentality and histori-cism emblematic of European colonial power and tradition, has influenced the design of numerous public buildings in South Africa. Hundreds of public buildings have been modeled upon various features of Greek and Roman architecture. From about 1780 a revival of classicism can be detected in South African architecture and included not just the exterior of a building but also its interior design and furnishings. Greek columns with their three orders became very common in public and private buildings, as did other Greek features such as porticos and pediments; Roman architectural features, particularly the arch, apse, and dome, were also used. A trend in architecture in the period of Greek revivalism between 1820 and 1837 was an emphasis upon the portico with its classical colonnades. Examples of buildings with this emphasis include the Royal Observatory (1827), St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (1827), and St. George’s Cathedral (1834), all in Cape Town, and the Anglican church (1828) in Simonstown.

A particularly vigorous phase of classical revivalism followed in the years following 1837, as exemplified in the Commercial Exchange (1840) in Port Elizabeth, with two pedimented corner pavilions flanking a Doric portico in the centre, and the Trinity Presbyterian Church (1842) in Grahamstown, with its Doric portico and columns and bare pediment. From about the middle of the eighteenth century classical revivalism made no pronounced distinction between Greek and Roman features, although some buildings were clearly designed after a Roman model: the Dutch Reformed Church in Craddock (1864), for example, was built with the broad, heavy proportions of a Roman temple.

The neoclassical movement continued in different phases through the next one hundred years. Two impressive examples of classical revivalism from the second half of the nineteenth century are the Public Library (1860) in the Gardens of Cape Town and the Town Hall (1884), now the General Post Office, in Durban. Classical revivalism persisted in the twentieth century until after World War II. Some of the numerous examples include the Rhodes Building (1902) in Cape Town, based on a plan of a Roman palazzo; the City Hall (1914) in Johannesburg, with its Ionic columns and half-domed entrance; and the Central Block (1933) of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, with its Corinthian portico the focal point of an axially planned campus in the Roman manner. The axial design of this campus mirrors the layout of many South African towns founded in the nineteenth century that follow the rigid grid pattern of Roman town planning. The Voortrekker Monument (1949) in Pretoria, dedicated to Afrikaaner nationalism and culture, has a marble frieze consisting of 27 bas-relief panels that bring to mind the ideological program of the Altar of Augustan Peace and the battle and migratory scenes on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius; in addition, the form, function, and structure of the interior cupola of the Monument are reminiscent of the Pantheon, with its method of natural lighting by means of the central oculus.