About Paarl

In 1657, while Abraham Gabemma was searching for additional meat resources for the new Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, he saw a giant granite rock glistening in the sun after a rainstorm and named it de Diamondt en de Peerlberg. Gabemma was the Fiscal at the settlement on the shores of Table Bay. The diamonds soon disappeared from the name, and it became known simply at Pearl Rock or Pearl Mountain.

Then, in 1687, just 35 years after the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape, land for farms was given to some Dutch settlers on the banks of the Berg River nearby. The fertile soil and the Mediterranean-like climate of this region provided ideal conditions for farming. The settlers planted orchards, vegetable gardens and above all, vineyards, which today produce some of the best red wines in the world.