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History: Hoop op Constantia is only a short distance from Groot
Constantia and is most easily reached on foot from there. Hoop op Constantia was originally a part of Simon van der Stel’s estate Constantia. After his death his executrix, Johanna Wessels, Frans van der Stel’s wife, sold the estate in three portions on 20th June, 1715. Captain Oloff Bergh acquired Groot Constantia, while Simon Pieter de Meyer bought Klein Constantia and Bergvliet, together measuring about 570 hectares. He obtained transfer of the two farms on 13th August, 1716, and two days later sold all the land except 38 hec tares of Klein Constantia for the same price as he had çiaid for the whole. Two months later, on 26th October, 1716, he sold the remaining 38 hectares to Jan Jurgen Coetzee for 1 750 guilders, making a considerable profit on the whole transaction. This portion of Klein Constantia now became known as Hoop op Constantia.
Hoop op Constantia became a real family farm. Jan Jurgen Coetzee died shortly after he acquired it. His widow married Johannes Colyn in 1718 but on her death a few years later, left the farm to her second husband. In this way Hoop op Constantia passed to the Colyn family and remained in their hands for nearly a century and a half.
Although there is a romantic story that Simon van der Stel built the house on Hoop op Constantia, either for his daughter Catharina or for his numerous guests, there is considerable doubt whether there was a dwelling on Hoop op Constantia at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The real founder of this farm was, as we have seen, Johannes Colyn and his second wife, Johanna Appel. In the course of fifty years they develop op Constantia into a show farm, and they very likely buih the house. They laid out extensive vineyards and produced a considerable proportion of the well-known white and red Constantia wine of the eighteenth century. No wonder that Johanna Appel transferred the farm with movable and fixed property in 1776 to her son Johannes Nicholaas Colyn for 62 000 Indian guilders.
Johannes Nicholaas carried on the farming and it was probably he that added the front gable to the house. In 1799 his eldest son, Lambertus Johannes, took over the farm at the same price as he had paid for it. His wife, Eleanora Maria Coetzee, was a most enterprising woman. They occupied the farm for forty years and had two extra front gables and a back gable added. Eleonora outlived her husband and in her will provided that the farm should be transferred to their son Johannes Nicholaas for 100 000 riksdaalders on the understanding that it might “never” be disposed of out of the family “so that this farm de Hoop . . . will have to devolve on the male descendants bearing the name of Colyn”.
Unfortunately Johannes Nicholaas could not satisfy his mother’s high hopes. He fell more and more into debt and in 1857 he was declared insolvent. The farm was sold to John Robert Thomson of London, after which it changed hands rapidly.
Successive owners kept the house in good condition, until some years ago when it fell into disrepair. The two foremost side gables were. demolished and the steps of the stoep were badly damaged by a falling tree. Eventually the Government acquired the property and restored the house."
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