Then and now: Kronendal in Hout Bay

Then and now: Kronendal in Hout Bay

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Take a drive into Hout Bay from Constantia Nek and you'll pass the gabled white-and-green Kronendal manor house right next to the road. This historical building is steeped in history, and like all good old-fashioned estates, it has its own ghost.

Kronendal Homestead (seen above, c.1900) was the first farm in Hout Bay, established in the 1670s. The patch of land where the house currently stands was granted to Willem Basson in 1713, upon which a small structure was built. It remained a grassy plot for most of the remainder of the century.

The homestead is one of the oldest surviving examples of a Cape Dutch H-plan house in the Cape Peninsula. The rear section of the homestead was the first to be built, completed in 1713 when Basson owned the plot. In 1800, Kronendal was enlarged by Johannes Guilliam Van Helsdingen. This date can still be seen on the front gable.

The ghost of Kronendal

Legend has it that Kronendal is haunted. Between 1835 and 1849, the estate was owned by Sir Abraham Josias Cloete. The ghost is said to be that of Cloete's daughter, Elsa, who died of a broken heart after she was forbidden to marry her lover - a British soldier at the time, stationed in Hout Bay.

Elsa and her lover used to meet discreetly in the middle of the night at the front windows of the homestead. Out of sheer frustration, the soldier hanged himself from one of the oak trees across the road from Kronendal. These oak trees still stand today.

Visitors to Kronendal have reported seeing Elsa's figure standing behind the main gable window on moonlit nights, staring across the street at the oak trees, as if waiting for her lover. She has also been sighted wearing an old-fashioned blue dress in various rooms of the building.

Since the 1970s there have been at least five documented sightings of Elsa's ghost, as reported by local newspapers and magazines. Other people have claimed to see the ghostly figure of a man standing among the oak trees looking directly at the Kronendal home.

Kronendal was most recently home to a restaurant

Kronendal was declared a National Monument on 9 September 1960 and has been used for various purposes since. The farm was commercially active until the 1990s, making it the oldest working farm in the country when it ceased operations.

This photo of Kitima at The Kronendal is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Most recently, the stately building was home to Kitima - a well-known Thai and sushi restaurant that closed down recently. The owners of the restaurant would set a table every night for Elsa and her forbidden lover out of respect for the entities. The table was adorned with polished silverware, fresh flowers and food from the restaurant's kitchen.

The building remains unoccupied at the time of writing this article.

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Author: Seeff