Union Buildings

Baker, then South Africa's leading colonial architect, was commissioned in 1908 to design a single building to house the executive of the newly-formed Union of South Africa. He responded with a 285-metre-long crescent of two semicircular wings — one to represent the English-speaking population, one to represent the Afrikaans — joined by an amphitheatre that physically acknowledged the country's recent civil war. The complex took three years to build, used Magaliesburg sandstone and Italian marble, and opened in 1913.

The Union Buildings have been the backdrop to many of the country's defining moments. Mandela was inaugurated as president on the lower amphitheatre on 10 May 1994. The funeral lying-in-state in December 2013 saw close to 100,000 South Africans queue up the hill in three days. A 9-metre bronze Mandela statue, arms open, was unveiled on the day after the burial and now anchors the upper terrace.

Visitors are welcome on the public grounds and terraces every day of the week. The internal offices, including the President's office, are not open without a prior appointment, but the gardens, fountains, amphitheatres and statues can all be freely explored. A short walking circuit takes 30 to 45 minutes and gives multiple angles on Baker's architecture.

The gardens themselves are a small national park: 9 hectares of lawns, indigenous plantings, a Police Memorial, a Delville Wood Memorial commemorating South African losses in the First World War, and a Garden of Remembrance. The view from the upper terrace looks down Madiba Street straight into the heart of Pretoria.

Practical info: the grounds are open daily from sunrise to sunset and entry is free. The Union Buildings are a 10-minute drive from Church Square and are the centrepiece of our Pretoria Day Tour, paired with the Voortrekker Monument and a slow drive through the jacaranda-lined streets of the embassy quarter in October and November.