Showing posts with label ruins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ruins. Show all posts

Saturday, 28 October 2023

Ruins of Chonguene Hotel, Xai Xai, Mozambique, southern Africa - video

Ruins of Chonguene Hotel, located in Xai Xai, Mozambique.

#RuinsMozambique #MysteryAfrica #Abandoned

This Hotel was probably abandoned before or during the Mozambique Civil War (1977-1992).

Location:

GPS: -25.097966, 33.787237 Old building is located between ocean and sand dunes. There is an empty Olympic sized swimming pool with the old diving platform still in place. The hotel was built during the time when the Portuguese ruled in Mozambique and a person named D’Oliveira was its owner. It was abandoned when the independence war ended in 1975 after infamous 20/24 decree in which the Portuguese were forced to leave Mozambique with 20 kg of luggage within 24 hours. Up till now Mozambican people refuse to live in houses occupied by Portuguese before, and therefore this hotel hasn’t been occupied by squatters. There have been some rumours about a South African company wanting to invest and restore this building but so far nothing has happened. It was a luxury resort with an Olympic size pool, servant’s quarters, lounges and dining rooms, ball rooms and huge patios. Each room had an en-suite bathroom. The carport shows signs that it had a workshop for repairs to cars and then there is of course the view to the beach. The hotel has 110 units and sits on 12000 ha of land with 5 km of private beach. It is said that it was surrounded 23000 ha game reserve when Mr. D’Oliveira owned the place in the 1960’s. Previous guests to the hotel still talks about the fish prepared for them and delivered on silver platters. The attention to detail in the magnificent place was astonishing. History of this place is not so fortunate. It is said that after this decree mentioned above some of the Portuguese civilians failed to leave the country before the deadline that had been set by the government. They hid in the vast property of the Chongoene Hotel. They were tracked by soldiers and finally executed. We don’t know how many people were there and how long they were held hostage there. Now, it is believed they are sometimes wandering along empty corridors. If you are in this area it is worth to visit this abandoned and maybe even haunted place. There is a book written by PJH Petter-Bowyer mentioning a meeting held at Chongoene Hotel in 1973. The book is called “Winds of Destruction” - the autobiography of a Rhodesian-born pilot covering the Rhodesian bush war of 1967-1982. “On 22 June 1979 Maputo sent this message to Xai Xai:- “Do all the preparations in Chongoene Hotel in order to receive the participants to the conference of the five Patriotic Front and representatives of ZANU foreseen for next July”. The meeting a Chongoene Hotel was likely to commence on Saturday 30 June or 1 July but because ZANU and ZAPU seldom saw eye to eye, there was always the possibility that one part would walk out on the other.

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Thursday, 24 March 2022

South Africa: Ruins off the Swellendam to Bredasdorp road

The Cape's threatened buildings

Ruins off the Swellendam to Bredasdorp road (R319), Overberg

A ruined farmstead off the R319 between Swellendam and Bredasdorp, Overberg. Found on the Muurkraal/Witdam road, there is a ruined, fairly deep three-bay farmhouse built of mud bricks and what looks like an older barn (or longhouse) that is built of beautiful stonework up to lintel-height, then topped with mud bricks.

The exposed wall fabric reveals various stages of development, and the stonework appears to have a join at centre, suggesting the barn was doubled in length fairly early on. It may once have been thatched, but its corrugated iron roof has lasted longer, thereby protecting the now collapsing walls. But only until the roof, which is precariously perching on the walls, collapses too.

Matthias Streicher: Old Jan “Motsak” Swart owned the farm and built these houses. The story goes that there lived two spinster sisters, both got sick from TB. In those days people believed that the TB germs stayed in the building for years. So when these two ladies moved out no one moved in again.

My great grandfather bought the farm in the 1940’s. The photo above with the thatch roof still on was taken by my grandfather in the 60’s. My father sold it to the Human family in 1999. Both my aunt and my neighbour Mr. Human had there wedding photos taken at the old barn.

So it is still cherished in a way. P.S. We don’t think of it as remote, it is just about 15 minutes drive from town. We have lived here all our lives. But we know that it must have been a different story for forefathers and mothers.

I thought perhaps that Elim would be a good benchmark and checked now, but I wonder if this farmhouse would go back quite that far (1820 to 1850ish). 

This part of the world feels quite remote to me now – I wonder what it must have felt like to live there in the 1800s! Especially if someone became very ill or another tragedy struck…

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