Located next to the N3 highway to Durban, Heidelberg is easily accessible from Johannesburg - just fifty kilometres away. It is at the eastern end of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve and sits on the highest part of the Gauteng province, some 2 000 metres above sea level.
- visit the Diepkloof Farm Museum established in the 1850s. The farmhouse is one of the buildings that still remained after the war and has been restored to its original state – with period furniture and crockery. The farm buildings include the original home, wagon barn and a school consisting of a classroom, storage and quarters for a teacher.
- visit the Heidelberg Transport Museum - it showcases the history of transport from penny-farthings to Model T Fords and Formula One cars.
- visit the beautiful Klipkerk (stone church) - it is one of Heidelberg’s well preserved stone churches. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1890.
Heidelberg started as trading station in 1862. It was built by a German Heinrich Julies Uekermann. In 1866 the Heidelberg District was formed. It was to become a focal point in the Anglo Boer war when it became the capital of the Boer Republic.
During the first war of independence it was the first capital of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek. In 1885 gold was discovered near Heidelberg and the mining commissioner set up office there. Heidelberg was developed as a Victorian town with many buildings built between 1890 and 1910 have been preserved.
The British built a concentration camp during the Second Boer War to house Boer women and children. The far right organisation the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) was founded in Rensburg, a suburb of Heidelberg.
