Walking through the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria, one cannot help but notice the stark contrast between old and new architecture.

Neo-Renaissance buildings are often found adjacent to far more contemporary structures, as though two different centuries were built side by side.

The Old Government Building on Church Square in the Pretoria city centre, with its symmetrical facades and grand classical details, is a good example of the Neo-Renaissance architecture imported into South Africa at the turn of the 20th century.

Despite these structures still carrying the weight of South Africa’s oppressive past, many of them, such as the Palace of Justice, which hosted the Rivonia Trial from 1963 to 1964 and has the Freedom Charter inscribed in one of its cells, are also reminders of the struggle for freedom.

Paul Kruger, who led the Transvaal or Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) from 1883 to 1900, realised early on that the state’s appearance would need to reflect its motto, “Eendracht Maakt Macht” (“strength lies in unity”).

To achieve this, he hand-picked Sytze Wierda, a Dutch engineer and railway architect who had just overseen the completion of Amsterdam Centraal Station and appointed him head of the ZAR’s public works department.

Wierda was born on 28 February 1839 in Hemrik, a town in the north of the Netherlands. He grew up in a working-class family, with his father employed as a casual labourer and part-time butcher.

After primary school, he trained as a carpenter before eventually apprenticing in Groningen, where he worked for a year.

Over the next few years, Wierda established himself as a carpenter while studying architecture at a local drawing school. He was employed as a draughtsman on a railway project in 1865 when he caught the attention of the section engineer, who promoted him.

Continuing in public works, Wierda slowly rose through the ranks until he was named chief clerk of works for the railway project between Zaandam and Amsterdam.

This included Amsterdam’s Centraal Station and Central Goods Station, projects that ultimately caught Kruger’s attention at the southern tip of Africa, where he hoped to establish a distinctly South African architectural style.

In 1887, Wierda was appointed head of public works, government engineer, and architect of the ZAR, a role he would hold until 1900.

One of Wierda’s first major projects was designing the ZAR’s parliament building in central Pretoria, which began in 1889 and was completed two years later at the cost of £82 500, equivalent to roughly R183 million today.

On the other side of Church Square stands the Palace of Justice, probably Wierda’s most significant contribution to South African architecture. Although construction began in 1897, the building was still incomplete when the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899.

It was eventually finished after the war ended in 1902. Following the collapse of the ZAR, Wierda’s contribution to South African architecture also declined, and he retired to Cape Town, where he died in 1911.

However, several of his designs remain standing today, including the Rissik Street Post Office in Johannesburg and the Landdrost-, Post- en Telegraafkantoor in Potchefstroom.

Because of his role, he was also responsible for designing several other, less significant government buildings, including jails, police stations, and bridges.

Wierdapark, a suburb of Centurion, was named after him when it was proclaimed in 1938.

Above: Palace of Justice, image by Leo za1, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Above: Rissik Street Post Office, image by Janek Szymanowski, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Above: Old Government Building in Pretoria, image by Țetcu Mircea Rareș, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons