Mossel Bay - Bartolomeu Diaz Museum

The 500th anniversary of Bartolomeu Diaz's landing in Mossel Bay was marked by the establishment of a large modern museum complex. The reception and information center is housed in the Granary. The Granary, originally built in 1786, was pulled down in the mid 20th C and rebuilt in its original form in 1986. Facing it is the Maritime Museum, in a building which from 1901 onwards was a grain mill and sawmill. The museum's star exhibit is a replica of the caravel in which Diaz rounded the Cape in 1488. The vessel was built in Portugal and sailed into Mossel Bay in 1988. Adjoining this museum is the Shell Museum, with a collection of shells from all over the world on the upper floor and aquarium tanks showing living shellfish in their natural environment on the ground floor. The Munrohoek Cottages, built around 1830 and restored in the mid 1980s, are among the oldest buildings in Mossel Bay.