History of the Lanzerac Hotel and Spa
Settle yourself beneath the shade of an old oak with a blush pink glass of wine in your hand. As you feel yourself slip back 300 years the sun seeps across the Jonkershoek Valley you can imagine the first turf being turned on this Cape land now known as Lanzerac.
In 1692 Sergeant Isaac Schryver of the Dutch East India Company received his first piece of land. Governor Simon van der Stel granted him Schoongezicht - 21 Morgan of virgin soil near the small town of Stellenbosch, which was his to toil as he wished.
Hungry for adventure however, Isaac soon went off to seek his fortune in copper prospecting, but for 100 years after his death the Schryver family remained at Schoongezicht.
The land finally fell into the hands of a distant relative, Coenraad Johannes Albertyn, who in 1830 sold it to Coenraad Fick. It was Fick who then made himself the first real lord of the manor by building the fine white gabled home that still stands today in the heart of Lanzerac.
When Coenraad Fick died in 1841, Pieter van der Bijl bought Schoongezicht. His son took over until 1887 when the title deeds were transferred to J.H. Wicht who in turn passed it on to his son. In 1922 Schoongezicht was to see a number of changes - its proud new owner, the aristocratic Mrs. English, bought it for the stately sum of eighteen thousand pounds.
Mrs. English restored and developed the outbuildings, added on the manor house and filled it with glorious antiques making it a splendid colonial home. She also diligently tended the vineyards and changed the title from Schoongezicht to Lanzerac which is thought to be the name of a wine-growing region in France. It was also Mrs. English who produced the first wine under the Lanzerac label. When she died in 1929, hundreds of voyagers flocked to the auction sale to catch a glimpse of the treasures for sale. No buyer emerged to take over the property and for a while it remained in the hands of the bank.
By 1936, Mr. Triblehorn bought the property and developed its cellars to make them the Cape’s most modern. He then sold it to the creative wine maker Angus Buchanan who, with his wife Sushi, revived its gracious spirit. By the mid-40’s the estate was producing top-quality award-winning wines as well as sherry and brandy.
Mr Triblehorn later sold some of the land which has since become the suburb known as Karendal, named after his daughter Karen. In 1958 Angus Buchanan sold Lanzerac to an aspiring hotel lord, David Rawdon. The magnificent homestead started on a glittering new career and was to become one of the finest hotels in this country.
The good-looking and magnetic young David Rawdon could only have dreamt of the success that the Lanzerac Hotel was to enjoy when he opened the doors to the public in August 1959. With the help of his mother, Marie Rawdon and his hotelier brother, Graham, he’d bought the property for R36 000. He then spent a year of intense renovation and restructuring and turned fowl pens, stables, cow sheds and kraals into fetching bedrooms that for the next 30 odd years beckoned travellers from home and abroad.
Rawdon however was no modern millionaire hotel magnate - money was in scarce supply and with a small team of builders he designed and oversaw most of the work himself. He went from one auction and yard sale to the next in the neighbouring countryside buying up neglected furniture and follies which he freshened up into smart period pieces, many of which are still in residence at the hotel today
With three hundred years behind her and over thirty of those spent as a hotel, it can safely be said that Lanzerac has established a reputation as one of the best known and best loved hotels in the country. In fact in 1975 she appeared in a prestigious Thomas Cook publication as one of the top 300 hotels in the world and "by far the prettiest in South Africa".
But there was a grey time in her life - after David Rawdon sold in her in 1988 the Lanzerac looked set to join the brassy big time set with talk of timeshare and multi-million renovations. But fortunately for lovers of the real Lanzerac legend it was not to be. In 1990 Christo Wiese, businessman, wine lover and ex-Matie, saved her in the nick of time "because I wanted a wine farm".
With Steve and Nicky Fitzgerald of Halcyon Hotels, Christo Wiese has invested enough to restore Lanzerac to the fine, simple style to which she is accustomed, but the oak trees provide the same shade and the kitchens the same comfort.
The Spa & Wellness was established at in October 2005 by making use of the existing Gallery and converting and building on to this fine piece of architecture.
Since its opening the Lanzerac Spa & Wellness Centre has grown under the management of Max & Marna Lourens and has become a much sought after retreat where care and attention is giving to the individual.
