Die Breytenbach Sentrum

Officially known in Afrikaans as Die Breytenbach Sentrum (the Breytenbach Centre in English) is today home to a multicultural cultural centre, providing training in and exposure to fine arts, music, drama and literature.

The buildings used for the Centre, at 14 Burger Street in the Western Cape town of Wellington, were once home to the well-known Breytenbach family, including painter, poet and playwright Breyten Breytenbach, military officer and author of military books, Jan Breytenbach, and photographer Cloete Breytenbach, and was named after the family.

The first renovations to the buildings were completed in early 2007 and the Centre was officially opened on 26 February 2007. A second restoration initiative was launched in 2019.

The Centre now also includes an art gallery (the Breytenbach Galery), a theatre venue (the Bôrdienghuis Teaterkafee) and a bookshop (The Book Traders)

For more information (in Afrikaans) go to the Centre's website at http://www.breytenbachsentrum.co.za/.

The venues in the Centre

The Bôrdienghuis Teaterkafee

The Bôrdienghuis Teaterkafee ("boarding house theatre café") is an intimate venue at the Breytenbach Sentrum and offers regular performances, ranging from music to cabaret and drama. Die venue is also rented out for weddings, birthday celebrations, small conferences and product launches. Several book-launches have taken place in the venue over the years.

The Book Traders

The bookshop had been an independent bookshop in Wellington for 6 years before it was incorporated into the Breytenbach Centre in 2008.

Selling fiction and non-fiction, both second-hand and new, it has five rooms filled with a wide variety of genres, including an extensive children's section. Today it also hosts an Africana room.