Huguenot Memorial Museum

Museum tracing the history of the French Huguenot settlers who founded Franschhoek in the 1690s

Address Lambrecht Street, Franschhoek 7690

The Huguenot Memorial Museum tells the story of the French Protestant refugees who settled in the Franschhoek valley from 1688 onwards, fleeing Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The museum sits at the end of Huguenot Road beside the Huguenot Monument — a large allegorical sculpture erected in 1948 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the settlers' arrival.

The collection covers the genealogy of the Huguenot families (many Cape families can trace their surnames here — De Villiers, Du Plessis, Du Toit, Le Roux), their role in establishing viticulture in the valley, and the broader history of French Protestant culture and its suppression in France. The archival material on individual families is the museum's most distinctive offering.

The museum also houses a collection of Cape Dutch furniture and decorative arts from the colonial period. Opening hours are standard museum hours; the monument grounds are always accessible. Entry is inexpensive and well worth the time for anyone curious about the Cape's settler history.

things to do museum historic site
A story
The Huguenots who arrived in the Cape Colony from 1688 onwards were given land in the valley on condition that they abandon French — the VOC feared a French-speaking enclave would be harder to govern. Within two generations, the French language had vanished entirely from the community, and the settlers' descendants were indistinguishable from other Dutch-speaking colonists. The museum was built in 1948 specifically to recover and preserve a history that had almost been erased by deliberate policy.

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