About
Bloemfontein , also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", as it hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal, alongside the legislative capital Cape Town and executive capital Pretoria. However, the highest court in South Africa, the Constitutional Court, has been in Johannesburg since 1994. Situated at an elevation of 1,395 m (4,577 ft) above sea level, the city of 256,185 residents (as of 2011) has Mangaung as its municipality, which has a population of 747,431. The city of Bloemfontein contains the Franklin Game Reserve, Naval Hill, the Maselspoort Resort and the Sand du Plessis Theatre. The city hosts numerous museums, including the National Women's Monument, the Anglo-Boer War Museum, the National Museum, and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum. Bloemfontein also hosts the first digital planetarium in the southern hemisphere, the Naval Hill Planetarium, and Boyden Observatory, an astronomical research observatory.