Everything we always talk about in here is new new new new new... but we forget to often look back at some of the amazing historic buildings around us. This thread aims to capture the historic, listed buildings of KZN.

All below from dennisguichard.wordpress.com

Old Mill House, Ixopo

Considering that I’ve lived in Durban most of my life and never heard anything of them I’m finding this whole thing about Trappist Monks, mission stations and early KwaZulu Natal history quite fascinating to tell the truth (it’s a bit like being a child in a sweet shop) perhaps mostly just because it’s all quite a new discovery for me.

Trappist Monks follow quite a devout form of Christianity choosing not to engage in any unnecessary banter as it “disturbs a disciple’s duty for quietude and receptivity, and may tempt one to exercise one’s own will instead of the will of God.” Everyone to their own I guess but you can’t help but respect and admire anyone who gives that level of devotion to anything in life be it career, love, sport or faith?

“Following the 48th chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict, most Trappist monasteries produce goods which are sold to provide income for the monastery ranging from cheese, bread and other foodstuffs to clothing and coffins. As the order does not require abstention from alcohol, some monasteries produce and sell alcoholic beverages. Monasteries in Belgium and the Netherlands, such as Orval Abbey and Westvleteren Abbey, brew beer both for the monks and for sale to the general public. Trappist beers contain residual sugars and living yeast, and, as bottle-conditioned beers do, will improve with age. These have become quite famous and are considered by many beer critics to be amongst the finest in the world.”

A recent visit to the King’s Grant Country Retreat in Ixopo to shoot the next instalment of Safintra Roofing’s ‘Great South African Architecture’ campaign introduced me to this most fascinating history story and the discovery of some of the most spectacular heritage architecture I have seen. The owners of the farm land upon which this particular mission is situated (St Isadore) have been painstakingly working at restoring these age-old buildings to their original glory (and well done to them indeed).

Below then a handful of captures from the original old mill building that was originally used by the Trappist Monks to grind corn and make flour for bread, for self-consumption and also for sale to the local community.

Read more about the Trappist Monks and follow the fascinating Trappist Trail HERE (http://www.trappisttrail.co.za/home/).


http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/kings-grant-3054-bw.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/kings-grant-3315-bw.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/kings-grant-3431-bw.jpg

All below from dennisguichard.wordpress.com


St Mary’s Seminary, Ixopo


Reminiscent of something out of the PhotoXplorers TV series a chance conversation lead me to recently discover this most amazing and beautiful old derelict brick building lost off the beaten track up a rutted dirt road in the overgrowth of the Ixopo forest in KwaZulu Natal.

It is certainly embroiled in a very fascinating historical past; in the early years of colonisation in South Africa priests from Europe, and to a lesser extent North America, were sent to provide pastoral care for the European settlers and to evangelise the black population. Prior to 1922 no priests were actually trained in South Africa by the Christian churches.

In 1919 Pope Benedict XV had mandated the training of ‘indigenous’ priests in their own countries and so driven by an order of Roman Catholic Trappist Monks living in various missions across the region, African’s were slowly converted to Christianity. Originally founded in 1925 the buildings at St Mary’s Seminary were constructed as one of a collection of secluded facilities to train African priests.

I can’t source much more information about when and why it closed down but I’m told the facility was also once used as a nurse training facility. The Church recently offered the building and land for sale for a sum of a mere R7 million but no buyer was found.

The chapel out the back still has all its stained glass windows in place and people who have been inside tell me it is strewn with old library books. I tried to get in myself but the building has recently been secured and there wasn’t any easy access that I could find to get in and get some internal photos. I’m told there was a problem with people getting in and breaking the old wash basins to steal pipework to sell as scrap metal so it was neccessary to amp up the security before all the doors and windows were stolen too.

The internal courtyard (shown below) has also just recently been tidied up so perhaps it is back on the market again or a new owner has already taken it over. It is certainly a very beautiful gem!


http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/saint-marys-3487-web.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/saint-marys-3478-web.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/saint-marys-3490-web.jpg

All below from dennisguichard.wordpress.com


Kings Grant Country Retreat


Once serving as a Trappist monk sanctuary this wonderful age-old facility is slowly being restored to its original glory by the wonderful Cheryl Biggs and her team of supporters at Kings Grant in Ixopo in the KwaZulu Natal midlands.

Following the 48th chapter of the Rule of St Benedict Trappist monks were required to live only by the spoils of their own hands so they had to make everything that they themselves used or consumed. The chapel and surrounding buildings on the farm all enabled the monks to live a self-sufficient lifestyle praying, farming, milling wheat into flour and even producing the very bricks with which they constructed their own buildings.

The weather was quite dreadful on our brief visit here to shoot the next installment of Safintra’s ‘Great South African Architecture’ campaign so the only way to really shoot in the dull flat light we had was to process in high-contrast black-and-white. Somehow it seemed fitting anyway given the spectacular history of this wonderful place…?


http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/kings-grant-3258-bw.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/kings-grant-3073-bw.jpg

http://dennisguichard.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/kings-grant-3337-bw.jpg

wow , great pics - KZN is underrated for heritage buildings. I remember stumbling on a thread for the World Art Deco Congress in Durbs a few years ago, and was blown away!

Great thread! Some if those buildings remind me of the Marianhill Seminary. Now we need pics of some of Pmb's fantastic heritage archutecture.

Those are gorgeous. There's so much on our doorstep that we don't know about.