Sites

Today much of erf 566 is a well-established garden containing a central devotional area with a statue (present in 1926), the Institute’s swimming pool (situated at the north east corner). The ground is considered important by the institute as a peaceful green enclave used for both religious and recreational purposes. Its origins date to 1720 when the Council of Policy of the VOC government at the Cape identified what was a desolate area of dune for a new burial ground for soldiers. It is possible that even before 1720 the land received informal burials. Construction of the south eastern wing and chapel of the Salesian Institute took place in 1910 while the twin south-western wing was built in 1935. The human remains were exhumed from the site and reburied at Maitland. The military burial ground which exists today represented by the boundary wall of the Salesian Institute, was the first formal burial ground in Cape Town other than that which was associated with the Groote Kerk. It is clear that Erf 566 was subject to extraordinarily heavy use as a burial ground. Hence Erf 566 was a layered burial ground which contained tens of thousands of human bodies. The implication of this is that there may have been up to 4 m depth of human remains on the site. While the historic records indicated that the cemetery was exhumed, the trial excavation on this site was motivated by the fact that this was a very old heavily used cemetery that probably contained multiple layers of bodies. A single large excavation was carried out. The shafts of 5 graves could be clearly identified.  Human remains were found in two of the 5 graves – both of these were articulated burials of adults. Loose human skeletal material was present in the fill throughout all levels, along with coffin handles and wood fragments.