A visit to the Montagu Museum | A dual time-travel experience for only R15!
Add the Montagu Museum to your to-do list and be transported back in time for just R15! This small-town cultural treasure offers a dual time-travel experience through Joubert House and the Old Mission Church. Step into history, explore intimate exhibits, and connect with the vibrant heritage, traditions, and stories of Montagu’s past and its people.
It's time to cancel the naysayers who posit that visiting a small-town museum is a boring pastime. These local ‘time machines’ are special places where every exhibit tells a story that may connect the past to you.
A visit to a museum is never just about looking; it's about learning, imagining, and connecting to those who lived, worked and dreamed before us.
Small-town museums hold the power to dissolve the barrier of time, inviting us to experience the sights, sounds, and emotions of the past as though we were truly there.
Picture yourself stepping into a 19th-century home, where every wall is the guardian of past secrets. Imagine discovering tools and treasures that once dictated the daily and weekly rhythms of an entire community.
Wedding dresses, dolls, wallpaper etc.
If you live in Montagu, or if your travels serendipitously bring you to this pretty 'platteland' Victorian town, then you get not one, but two options to step back in time.
This dual experience begins with The Old Mission Church (established in 1907) and Joubert House (built in 1853).
These two landmarks, collectively known as the Montagu Museum, house treasures that, if you let them, will spark your imagination and deepen your appreciation for the generations that preceded us. (For just R15 for adults and R5 for children, you can explore both).
Every item - from vintage pieces to historical photographs - acts as a portal to a different time and allows you to witness history in a way that books cannot replicate.
It could be an antique lace wedding dress, a yellowed christening gown, a family Bible recording generational births, marriages and deaths, a pretty teapot, a child’s doll, a piece of decorative wallpaper, a peach pip floor, or a colourful collection of glass medicine bottles.
Unlike the flashy and often overwhelming displays of larger institutions, Joubert House and the Old Mission Church are intimate spaces that promise a personal journey as soon as you cross the threshold, inviting you to connect with the heritage and humanity of those who came before and lived in this place.
The walls whisper truth and legend, tenuously interlinking past and present.
If walls (and ghosts) could talk
Small-town museums, at their core, are storytellers. Through documents, letters, photos, artworks, clothing, kitchen utensils, memorabilia, and oral tradition, they reveal the tales of eccentric characters, unlikely heroes, influential leaders, and everyday moments of a past time.
At Joubert House, history takes on a personal touch. Wander through its grounds and rooms and uncover tales like that of Pieter Joubert Sr., the first Commissioner of Peace, who once used a small outbuilding as an overnight holding cell for troublemakers; a structure now repurposed as a tool shed but still a pointer to a living past.
Then there’s the chilling legend of a bride-to-be, tragically murdered the night before her wedding, whose sepia photo hangs in her former bedroom. Some say her ghost still roams the house.
Stories like these breathe life into the past, proving history is anything but dull.
The appeal doesn’t end there. Joubert House’s indigenous garden and the Old Mission Church’s herb shop showcase local herb lore, offering traditional KhoiSan remedies and tea blends. These spaces celebrate the traditions that continue to shape Montagu today.
Some stories carry an air of danger and mystery, capturing the imagination with their intrigue. Take the infamous KhoiSan outlaw, Koos Sas; a name that never fails to get attention. A sheep rustler accused of murdering a Dominee's son, Sas evaded capture for years before being shot and killed in 1922. For decades, his skull was displayed in the museum, a grim relic of his turbulent life. Finally, in April 2021, KhoiSan leaders held a ceremony to lay him to rest. His skull was placed in a wooden casket and interred in Cogmanskloof. Today, a casket, kept in the Old Mission Church, serves as a haunting reminder of his notorious legacy.
The Church also resonates with anecdotes of the community that worshipped there until the Land Reform Act of the 1960s displaced the Coloured community from this sacred space. Now a National Monument, its walls stand as a solemn reminder of resilience and loss, echoing with the voices of those who once worshipped, married, taught, and found solace in its pews.
Each corner tells a story of resilience, innovation and tradition. Every detail carries the pulse of history, making you feel welcome, at home, and part of something much larger than your own context.
And if you choose to immerse yourself in a time that existed before you did, you will discover that the journeys and narratives of those who went before included hardship, struggle, joy, sadness, birth and death. (Perhaps not so different from the present, and not so boring after all).
No age restriction
Whether you're a curious traveller or a local seeking a cultural escape, the Montagu Museum ticks many boxes and offers visitors of all ages a thrilling adventure through time.
It’s a transformative space where the curiosity of a child can be nurtured, the eagerness of a learner can be satisfied, and the enthusiasm of a seasoned history buff can be indulged.
By exploring these two small-town family-friendly museums, you play a significant role in preserving local culture, supporting community initiatives, promoting community engagement, and keeping their doors open.
A visit to the Montagu Museum is a reminder that history is alive, waiting to be rediscovered; to hear’ the tales of past generations, ‘feel’ the energy of their everyday lives, and experience moments frozen in time.
No 'Back to the Future' DeLorean is required; just an open mind and a willingness to connect with stories that occupy the same spaces we do today.
Written by Leanne Johnson
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