Ficksburg in the Free State is the home to the Cherry Festiv

Ficksburg is situated in the scenic panorama of the Eastern Free State along the Highlands Route. Ficksburg nestles at the foot of the Imperani Mountain and on the banks of the Caledon River, the border with Lesotho. With magnificent views of the majestic Malutis as backdrop, changing with the seasons, from the purple haze of summer to the snow clad slopes in winter.

The history of the Ficksburg area goes back to the dawn of time, starting with the dinosaurs who left their fossils and their footprints as reminders of their presence, later came the seas and deserts that set the sandstones with their fossilised remains, and wonderful evening colours, later yet the first humans we know of who left us their prehistoric tools, then the Bushmen, who left their tools and their paintings for us to wonder at. Later came the Black man, with the difaquane and wars of extermination, and the Basotho nation was built up of the remnants of the tribes that had survived. Then came the white man, the hunters, the "trekboere" the Voortrekkers and after them the settlers.

The first permanent European settlers in this area that was eventually to become Ficksburg was a missionary the Rev. James Allison and his wife. Ficksburg was proclaimed in June 1867, and named after General J.I.J. Fick, commandant general of the Free State forces, to serve as a "Military town". Ficksburg became a magisterial district in 1891. The Ficksburg Town Hall and old Court House were built before the Anglo Boer War, as was the Methodist Church, all were built of local sandstone. In 1907 the Dutch Reformed Church, the Railway Station, the old Post Office and the bridge across the Caledon , all built of Ficksburg sandstone, were formally opened. Many public buildings including the Union Buildings in Pretoria were built of Ficksburg sandstone.

On the agricultural front Ficksburg has the distinction of being the birthplace of what eventually has become the largest hail insurance company in the Southern Hemisphere. It was in 1929 that a few local farmers got together and formed the Conquered Territory Mutual Hail Assurance Co. This later became Farmers Hail or Boere Hael, then Sentra Oes, and today is known as A.R.S. Agri Risk Security.

Ficksburg also had the honour of being declared the first Soil Conservation District in South Africa in 1946.

Ficksburg has developed and prospered and today is not only the gem of the Conquered Territory but also the Gateway to the Kingdom of Lesotho.

Accommodation in and around Malealea