HB0049

Did You Know?

Rhodes village, originally known as Nonesi's Nek, was established in the late 19th century as a trading and farming settlement in the remote northeastern Cape, near the border with Lesotho. The village was renamed after Cecil John Rhodes, who had interests in the region and whose brother, Frank Rhodes, owned a farm nearby. The Rhodes village Hotel, built in 1898, served as a vital stopover for travelers, wool merchants, and farmers moving between the interior and the coast, given the area's role in the wool trade and its position along mountain passes. The hotel is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the village and reflects the vernacular stone-and-corrugated-iron architecture typical of the era's frontier settlements. It operated as a coaching inn during the days of horse-drawn transport, providing accommodation, stabling, and refreshment. The building has been carefully restored and continues to function as a hotel, making it a rare example of a continuously operating 19th-century country inn in the Eastern Cape highlands. Contextually, the hotel's history is tied to the region's turbulent past, including the Frontier Wars and the later establishment of the railway and road networks. The village of Rhodes sits at an altitude of about 1,800 meters, making it one of the highest villages in South Africa, and it became known for its trout fishing and mountain scenery. The hotel's survival into the 21st century is significant, as many similar establishments in the Karoo and Cape mountains were abandoned or demolished.

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