Groote Kerk Kaapstad

This guide to Groote Kerk in Cape Town follows Anton Anreith, who arrived at the Castle of Good Hope in 1777 as a common soldier with no training as a sculptor. It traces how his carpentry work for the Dutch East India Company grew into a master-sculptor's rank within a decade, and how the church council then handed him its grandest commission yet: a pulpit resting on the shoulders of two carved lions. Look up at the pulpit above you as you listen, and notice the swirling panels carved alongside Jacob Graaff, the company's chief carpenter.