The South African capital is revealed as a beat emporium whose fibers contrasts of a great nation and surprise people these days, heat XVII World Festival of Youth and Students delve into their essences
PRETORIA, South Africa .- We talked a lot of beauty that would be in Pretoria, but as usually happens with all your senses feel the stones, the streets and the spirit of a city break any expectation that you can give a picture drawn by others.
At the administrative capital of South Africa, any tourist gasps when he finds a city so lush. His great arteries and buildings, its growing industrial infrastructure, the web of businesses and the many services the city resemble any of the Prime World. Here is the Menlyn Park, the largest commercial center in Africa.
The constant movement of luxury cars for its avenues, well outlined and as clean as any European city, it is surprising, especially when the night begins to steal the light of day and it seems that the stars fell to the pavement.
The contrast is much greater for those coming to the capital with the idea of \u200b\u200bfinding a concentration of slums, where poverty can elaborate and opacity, and tell some stories about Africa.
It's not paradise. Here, as elsewhere in the continent, who are crushed by the brutality of capitalism, but that picture is not obvious in the case of those who roam the city center. The other, the more ugly and irritating, always knowing look at the intricacies of all empire, where people just cry and struggle. Pretoria
shakes you with its colors, its magnificence, and your body dance to his music as if it were your own. And despite that excels by modern and contemporary, visible in its buildings and art museums, and its cosmopolitan character, living in her heart a throng of essences that are resistant to the forces of the fatuous untimely onrushing to start roots and make everything uniform. Named
capital since the 1st. May 1860, Pretoria always laid on their backs on hatred against the apartheid regime of apartheid. There was the center of the white dictatorship, where laws were passed racist. No one forgets that it was in the Supreme Court of this city where Nelson Mandela was tried for treason and sentenced to life imprisonment, when he was engaged in political struggle against the white dictatorship.
But Pretoria has also been the scene of many joys for blacks and progressive whites. Still alive the memory of that day in 1994 when Mandela himself, the prisoner 466/64, was inaugurated as the first black president of the fledgling multiracial democracy in the Union Buildings, sandstone buildings that rise majestically above the hill Meintjieskop.
Today many cataloged Pretoria as a city "youth", as it has become an educational, scientific and economic importance for most southern African nations. Here are the great and prestigious University of Pretoria and University of bulk mail in the country, known simply by his initials UNISA. Shelters also embassies, and the State Theatre presents major productions of opera and other musical genres.
The jacaranda city
said that Pretoria is more beautiful during the austral spring (October-November), when the jacaranda trees, crown spherical, lose their bright green, feathery leaves, and fill large, fragrant flowers. That
ornamental tree, of medium height and a native of South America, is found in almost all the avenues, squares, parks and even residential yards and gardens decorated, moderately filtered sunlight.
During the spring, the city, than at other times looks very grim, is covered with a purple cloak that gives it much more joy and cheerfulness of a city that in other seasons is very serious. So many people call the Jacaranda City.
In Pretoria the time of year becomes more attractive to tourists, who seek shelter on the rosewood as they stroll along the avenues dyed purple sweet.
Now, when we are here in summer, only a few purple flowers adorn the city, but the sea of \u200b\u200bnationalities and cultures meet today at the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students, many walk the seeking avenues in green glasses lags the splendor of spring.
past Friezes
From the entrance to the city, Boer soul transpires. There, a majestic building reminiscent of the Voortrekkers, the Boers who emigrated from the Cape to the Transvaal, with the Bible under his arm and leaving in its way quite a few dead natives.
In the corners of the building stand the statues of four gunmen, the leaders Andries Pretorius, Piet Retief, Voortrekker Hendrik Potgieter and anonymous.
Pretorius, the hero of the Voortrekkers in their victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River, reappears, with his horse, at City Hall, famous for its carillon and its 32 bells, " front of the Museum of Natural Sciences.
Throughout the city, skip the large concrete buildings and red bricks, similar to compact blocks, European-style, mainly Dutch and British, a legacy of the history of colonization. Raadsaal excel (former Transvaal parliament) or the Court of Justice, where Nelson Mandela was tried in 1963, or Melrose House, the scene of the signing of peace between the British and the Boers in 1902.
turn, Church Square, where he built the first church in the city, is surrounded by buildings that were home to government agencies at the time of the founding of Pretoria-appointed in honor of Andries Pretorius, and now housed government offices, banks and courts.
In the middle of this square stands the statue of Paul Kruger, immortalized in sculpture by Anton Van Wow. Uncle Paul, as he was called many to this family descended from a German trunk Boer and president of the republic of the Transvaal for several successive terms, is still highly revered by Afrikaners of South Africa today.
around this sector is developed city with a striking alternation of tall buildings, very modern lines and low houses adorned by beautiful gardens.
is in these buildings and monuments which is steeped heritage and culture of white settlers until 1994, with the advent of multiracial democracy, prevailed in all areas of life Praetorian and other cities in the most southern African nations.
addition to these monuments in the center, where today's best beats that Afrikaner past is in the suburbs on the outskirts of the city, where are located the luxurious mansions that make the deep contrast to other places where the layers lie poor.
The Voortrekker Monument also have a set on a hill that sits above the city, and is one of the most popular. There breathes very cool Afrikaner culture.
However, this longing is mainly in stone and bronze. Where once was home to white families, where blacks only had room to work as service workers, is now a much more diverse city, where blacks gaining more space.
fact, the story of the suffering of South Africans against apartheid, and the contribution of humanity, especially Cuba, freedom of the peoples of Africa, is unveiled at the Freedom Park, built in Salvokop.
This majestic mausoleum, located on the outskirts of the city, preserves the history of the struggle of humanity for freedom in South Africa, the battles of his people for survival and against apartheid, and control their natural resources. Pretoria
reveals to us as a beat emporium whose fibers contrasts of a great nation. The city is still surprising to those who in these days, the heat of the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students delve into their essences.
0 comments:
Post a Comment