Durbanville, Cape Town

Durbanville is a residential suburb and wine producing area in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa.

Durbanville was originally known as Pampoenkraal (from the Dutch "pampoen" meaning pumpkin, and "kraal" meaning an enclosure for livestock). It was founded in 1806 around a spring and was primarily a watering station for travellers between Cape Town and the interior. Its name was later changed to d'Urban in honour of the then governor of the Cape Colony, Benjamin d'Urban in 1834. This name was later changed to Durbanville in order to avoid confusion with Durban - a major port city in KwaZulu-Natal in the east of South Africa.

One of the attractions of Durbanville for outsiders is its [http://www.durbanvillewine.co.za/ wine route] . The wine cellars include Altydgedacht, Bloemendal, D’Aria (Poplars), De Grendel, Diemersdal, Durbanville Hills, Hillcrest, Nitida and Meerendal. The soil has a high clay content and is particularly suited to Sauvignon Blanc.

The past 10 years has seen a rapid expansion of Durbanville, mainly to the North, with new areas like Uitzicht being developed.

Afrikaans and English are the main languages spoken in Durbanville. In the past Afrikaans predominated culturally, but this has changed with the rapid development of the town. The principal religion of the population is Christianity with a wide variety of churches in the community.

The town has various sporting venues including a superb 18 hole golf course, soccer, rugby and cricket fields. The community has taken a keen interest in developing these sports.Durbanville Rugby Club - [http://www.dbrugby.co.za DBRugby]

As the area has a very low crime rate it has become very popular and the price of residential property has increased over 400% in the last five years and is still growing. The town has two public high schools - Durbanville High School (an Afrikaans medium school) and [http://www.fairmont.co.za/ Fairmont High] (an English medium school). There are numerous primary schools including Durbanville Preparatory, [http://www.durbanville-primary.com/ Durbanville Primary] , [http://www.eversdal.co.za/ Eversdal Primary] , Gene Louw Primary and [http://www.kenridge.org.za/ Kenridge Primary] . The area also has a number of private schools - [http://www.curro.co.za/ Curro] , [http://www.chesterhouse.co.za/ Chester House] and [http://www.escs.org.za/ El Shaddai Christian School] .