In April 2025, Thorsten and I spent two nights in the town of Rosendal on our way home from Semonkong, Lesotho. This trip is seriously old news by now, but I’m blogging about it anyway because: 1) This was my second time staying in Rosendal as a Lesotho stopover (the last time was way back in 2013) and I’m overdue to let you in on this secret; and 2) Thorsten, with help from his son Timo, made an excellent set of drawings of historic Rosendal buildings and I really want to share them.

Thorsten and Timo’s drawing of the historic bank manager’s house in Rosendal.

Rosendal is a tiny town, with only a few hundred residents, and is notable in that it’s barely a town at all. With the exception of a few historic sandstone buildings at the “town center”, Rosendal is a smattering of modest homes scattered about on large-ish lots, surrounded by prairie and views of the Witteberg Mountains in the distance. There is an interesting historical explanation for Rosendal’s sparseness — the town was basically never finished, and it became a virtual ghost town in the late 20th century — which you can read about on the Rosendal town website.

There is a lot of sandstone in the Free State, hence most of the old buildings in the province are made of sandstone. This building, originally constructed as a general dealer in 1912, is now an art gallery.

Thorsten and Timo’s beautiful drawing of the old post office building.

Today a lot of artists live in Rosendal, and there are a couple of galleries, restaurants, shops, and a big, sandstone church (typical of small towns in the Free State). There isn’t a ton to do there, which is part of Rosendal’s appeal. It’s a place where people go to do nothing, which is mostly what we did.

Sheep grazing around a sculpture by Joburg artist James Delaney, portraying King Moshoeshoe of Lesotho and his house. The sculpture, commissioned by Douglas Mason, stands in the center of town.

A typical “street” in Rosendal.

The view that draws people to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

Two Days in Rosendal

We arrived in Rosendal on a Friday and stayed until Sunday. We booked the “The Blacksmith’s” — the town’s historic blacksmith shed that has, like many of Rosendal’s historic buildings, been beautifully renovated into holiday accommodation. It cost R1200 (about $70) per night, which I think is a steal for such a lovely place.

Outside the Blacksmith’s, where we stayed.

Thorsten and Timo’s drawing of the Blacksmith’s is much better than my photo.

The beautiful living space inside the Blackmith’s.

It was chilly at night and we needed that fireplace.

The main bedroom at the Blacksmith’s. There is also a loft above this with another small bedroom, but it seems I didn’t take a picture of that.

The Blacksmith’s sits in a quaint courtyard behind the Service Station Wine Bar, one of the few restaurants in Rosendal, which is also a restored historic building. As it turns out, both the Blacksmith’s and the Service Station are owned by the same guy, Douglas Mason (no relation to Heather), who has restored most of the historic buildings in Rosendal.

The Service Station Wine Bar. It was once a mechanic’s shop that specialized in repairing farm machinery.

Drawing of the Service Station and the former general dealer (now gallery).

Dinner at the Service Station.

We ate at the Service Station both nights — the food and wine are excellent and it was five steps from our house, which made it hard to venture anywhere else — and got to know Douglas a bit while we were there. Douglas fell in love with Thorsten’s Instagram feed and commissioned him to create drawings of all the Rosendal buildings that Douglas has restored.

During our weekend in Rosendal, I realized that the historic building across the road from the Service Station, which used to be the town’s bank, is where I stayed in 2013 when my friend Michelle and I passed through town on our way to Lesotho. Douglas renovated the Bank a few years ago, after I stayed there, so it was fun to check it out again.

The Bank.

The Bank’s lounge area.

We didn’t do much else, other than walk around town critiquing the architecture of Rosendal’s many holiday homes, sip coffee on our stoep, shop for souvenirs at the gallery, and take a peep inside the church on Sunday morning.

The Rosendal Dutch Reformed Church.

It’s rare to see the inside of a Dutch Reformed Church unless you happen to show up on a Sunday morning before services, when the church is open.

Rosendal is about four hours from Joburg and 90 minutes from the Lesotho border. So it’s a great place to stop over, as we did, but also a great destination in its own right for people who like relaxing and doing nothing. (By the way, there are also few other galleries and cafés in Rosendal that we neglected to visit as we were too busy doing nothing. Sorry, not sorry.)

One more nice drawing of the “Nagmaal House” — I think it was originally the local minister’s house.

Hope to see you again soon, Rosendal.