Pretoria is commonly known as the Jacaranda City by its inhabitants due to all the purple blossom-bedecked trees which line its streets.  Pretoria is a lovely and quiet city compared to the neighbouring city of Johannesburg.  Unlike Johannesburg, which is one of the most ‘happening’ cities on the African continent and gleams with the glamour and money, Pretoria has been left to shrug off its former association with the apartheid government in a relative state of slumber as it lies in a warm, sheltered valley surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range; this subsequently ensures that temperatures in Pretoria are always a few degrees warmer than Johannesburg.

Pretoria functions as one of three capitals of South Africa, as it serves as the administrative capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.  Pretoria has a population that exceeds a million people, the bulk of whom are government officials.  The city centre of Pretoria is laid out in typical city fashion on a grid with wide roads, making getting around fairly simple.

Pretoria has a long, involved and fascinating history; hence the many old buildings, fascinating museums, galleries, and monuments found in and around the city.  Practically mandatory when visiting Pretoria is the Voortrekker Monument, the Pioneer Museum, Melrose House, the Union Buildings, the Zoo, and Pretoria Botanical Gardens. 

As far as the city’s history is concerned, Pretoria was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius.  The elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River.  Andries Pretorius also negotiated the Sand River Convention (1852), in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal.  On 1 May 1860, Pretoria became the capital of the South African Republic (ZAR).  The founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic can be seen as marking the end of the Boers’ settlement movements of the Great Trek.

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