Tag Archives: Knysna churches

History: St Boniface’s Catholic Church

Mike Hampton Posted on by

The Roman Catholic community in Knysna was founded around 1861, when a small chapel and schoolroom were built in Queen Street by Father Rooney of George, near where the present presbytery now stands. The first church was consecrated in 1863. The first resident priest was appointed in 1891. During the visit of the Rt. Rev. Bruno Hippel of Oudtshoorn to Knysna in 1949, planning started on the building of a new church in Queen Street, and a building subscription fund opened. Plans for the new church were drawn by Brother … Read the full article…

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Visit the 'Italian Church Museum' in Knysna Forest

Mike Hampton Posted on by

This is an outing for those of you who haven’t been into the Gouna Forest recently! Visit the old San Ambrosa Church on the ‘Gouna Commonage’ – it contains a very interesting display of the history of the Italian silk-grower families who came out to Knysna in 1881. Some of the descendents of these families are still in Knysna today and we have asked Rayno Sciocatti, a descendent, to talk to us about the history of these Italian immigrants and of the little Catholic Church, in which he has been … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

San Ambroso, Knysna’s Italian Church

Mike Hampton Posted on by

Have you visited the ‘Italian Church’ in Knysna? A mate unexpectedly took me and a pizza for a rainy ride to the Gouna Forest where i saw that beautiful building for the first time. Established in 1892, it was called the San Ambroso Church but has been renamed as the San Ambroso Chapel Museum. The Italians silk-farming intentions (mentioned in Daleen Matthee’s book, The Mulberry Forest) may have failed but it’s wonderful to still have part of their pioneering history with us. Rain made the forest wonderfully mysterious and further … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

Photos: ‘New’ St George’s Church in Knysna (1926)

Mike Hampton Posted on by

Remembrance Day, which just past, reminded me of the ‘New’ St. George’s Church, a building of magnificence that can be found in Main Street Knysna. It was built as “a living monument to those who had died during the Great War 1914 -1918”. You can read about the history of this church here.

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History of Knysna: The Lychgate (1935)

Mike Hampton Posted on by

A lychgate is a gateway covered with a roof found at the traditional entrance to a typical British churchyard. This lychgate was donated by the Thesen family in 1935, in memory of their mother, Mrs. Bessie Thesen, daughter of Captain Christopher Harrison (Knysna’s first Conservator of Forests), who died in 1901. E. Clementson built it of of solid teak and red ironstone which was quarried north of Knysna.

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The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!