Woutersen Wessels Vault

The Woutersen Wessels Vault is a historically significant heritage site likely designed by well-known architect Herman Schutte, who designed the Green Point Lighthouse.

According to available records, the vault was built by merchant Pieter Woutersen in the 1820s when it was still practice for Dutch families to bury their dead on their farms and estates. Woutersen was married to Maria de Villiers, who remarried to J. J. L. Smuts, the second mayor of Cape Town, after his death.

The vault, an important part of Cape Town's cultural landscape, is in the quiet residential suburb of Braemar Estate, which was established by the Wessels family in the 1930s on their farmstead. It served as a burial site for members of the Woutersen and Wessels family, who were prominent residents in the area. This list includes Adv. M L Wessels, brother of Sir John Wessels, the former Chief Justice of South Africa from 1932 to 1936.