Greenmarket Square
Greenmarket Square stands in the heart of old Cape Town, South Africa, surrounded by historic buildings and market stalls. It began in 1696 beside a burgher watch house. Fresh produce from the Company’s Garden and nearby farms soon made the square Cape Town’s administrative and social centre.
Over time, the setting served as a slave market, vegetable market, parking lot, and flea market for African crafts, souvenirs, and curiosities. A hand-operated pump rises at its centre. In 1761, the original watch house gave way to the Old Town House, which served as city hall and burgher watch house. Art Deco buildings appeared around the square during the 1930s, while Newspaper House became home to the Cape Times and Cape Argus.
The square became a national monument in 1961 and hosted the Purple Rain Protest against apartheid in September 1989. Pedestrianisation in the early 2000s improved market access and pedestrian safety. The pump once drew clean water from an underground river beneath Cape Town.
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Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Cape Town. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
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myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.