The small but intriguingly named railroad and farming town of Coligny in the North West Province, is by all accounts a place that has become a little run down of late, but still one for the history buffs.
Coligny is named after the famous French Huguenot Martyr Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, whose portrait is included in the image panorama above. Gaspars de Coligny’s death in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day on 24 August 1572 in Paris, when over 10 000 Protestants were murdered by the Catholic Monarch in one night, subsequently called the Bloody Night.
This massacre was one of the incidents that led to the mobilisation of the French Huguenots who are the ancestors of South Africa’s Afrikaans people, along with the Dutch colonialists who came to South Africa with Jan van Riebeeck.
A bust of Gaspard de Coligny stands at the local school.
While Coligny’s railway junction heydey may be over, a beautifully kept old steam locomotive, mounted on a plinth in the town centre tells the story of more genteel times when South African Railways’ steam trains huffed and puffed through the North West and ladies walked the dusty streets in fashions brought over from Europe.
The small town still operates as a 4 way railroad junction, and the old ‘vertical’ grain silos have been replaced in use by a bank of new silos. “There’s life in the old girl yet”, as they say.
A beautifully kept old steam locomotive, mounted on a plinth in the town centre tells the story of more genteel times when South African Railways’ steam trains huffed and puffed through the North West and ladies walked the dusty streets in fashions brought over from Europe, to attend church or gatherings at markets.
The area around Coligny consists primarily of farms and game farms, in an area known for its hot, dry climate and flat landscape.
Getting there: Coligny is situated on the R503 29km south of Lichtenburg.
