Vredefort is a small farming town situated along the R59 Provincial Route in the northern region of the Free State province in South Africa.
It is in Vredefort that the R59 Provincial Route intersects with the R721 Regional Route to Kroonstad.
The town was laid out and established in 1876 on a farm called Visgat, on the Vredefort crater, the largest and oldest visible bolide impact crater in the world (with a diameter of 300 km).
The town’s name is Afrikaans and translates into “Fort of Peace”. This name was derived from the peaceful conclusion of a threatened war between the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.
Located about 19 km south-west of Parys, 74 km north-east of Kroonstad, and 123 km south-west of Johannesburg in Gauteng, Vredefort is known throughout the world for the Vredefort Dome. To this day, Leopards still roam in the hills of the Vredefort Dome.
The Vredefort Dome stretches over 42 km and is currently the largest and one of the oldest known asteroid impact sites in the world. It is South Africa’s seventh World Heritage Site and its status is largely due to the efforts of research scientists from Wits University.
During the Second Boer War, the British built a concentration camp here to house Boer women and children.
Vredefort is an essentially small farming town whose mixed-farming industry produces sorghum, peanuts, maize, sunflower, and cattle.
