Constantia is an affluent suburb of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, situated about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Cape Town. The Constantia Valley lies to the east of and at the foot of the Constantiaberg

Constantiaberg

Constantiaberg is a large, whalebacked mountain that forms part of the mountainous spine of the Cape Peninsula in Table Mountain National Park, Cape Town, South Africa. It lies about 7 km south of Table Mountain, on the southern side of Constantia Nek. The mountain is 927 m high and was...

 mountain. Constantia Nek

Constantia Nek

Constantia Nek is a low pass over the Table Mountain range in Cape Town, South Africa, linking Constantia to Hout Bay in the west. It is one of three passes connecting Hout Bay to the rest of the city, and, with Ou Kaapse Weg is one of the two passes over the mountain range between the city centre...

 is a low pass linking to Hout Bay

Hout Bay

Hout Bay is the name of a coastal suburb of Cape Town, South Africa with a mix of neighbourhoods from the very rich to the very poor. It lies in a valley on the Atlantic Seaboard of the Cape Peninsula and is twenty kilometres south of the Central Business District of Cape Town...

 in the west.

History

Constantia is one of the oldest suburbs of Cape Town and is famed for its wine. The estate of Groot Constantia

Groot Constantia

Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and national monument in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa."Groot" in Dutch and Afrikaans translates as "great" in English.-History:...

 (Great Constantia) was established in 1684 by the Dutch Colonial Governor of Cape Town, Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel was the last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony, the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.-Background:...

. Other notable wine farms in the area include the oldest estate, Steenberg (Mountain of Stone), established in 1682, Buitenverwachting (Beyond Expectations), Klein Constantia

Klein Constantia

Klein Constantia is a wine estate in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa.-Foundation:Groot Constantia was established in 1684 by the VOC Governor of the Cape Simon van der Stel, and was used to produce wine as well as other fruit and vegetables and cattle farming...

 (Small Constantia) and Constantia Uitsig (View of Constantia). Before the twentieth century, the region was noted for its exports of Vin De Constance a sweet dessert wine. Many years ago the trade was crippled by the arrival in the Cape of a parasite that attacked the vines.

In 1661, during the Dutch conquest of Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, Sheik Abdurachman Matebe Shah and his companion Sheikh Mahmoud were banished to Constantia by the Dutch. Sheik Abdurachman is regarded as one of the three people that first brought Islam to South Africa. The kramat at Klein Constantia is built on the site that Sheik Abdurachman is thought to have died in 1681 or 1682.

Notable events and people

Mark Thatcher

Mark Thatcher

Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet is the son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Baroness Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher...

, the son of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer

Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, DL , styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer and brother of Diana, Princess of Wales...

, the brother of the late Princess Diana, both lived in Constantia. Mark's house is now owned by the Sahara Group.

Wine

The area is a major tourist hub outside of the central city area. Apart from its own wine route with centuries-old estates it has a number of fine restaurants with an international flavour such as Pastis (French), La Colombe (French) - ranked among the Top 50 in the world, Constantia Uitsig, Mama Roma (Italian) and more. Many of the homesteads along the wine route display Baroque and Cape Dutch architectural styles.