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Date: 1884 Client: Society of Jesus Type: Mission Station Style: Ecclesiastic Transvaal Vernacular : Utilitarian Status: Defunct

Vleischfontein is a historical Catholic mission station located on the Tweedepoort plateau in South Africa's North West province, within what is now the Madikwe Game Reserve. Founded in 1884 by Belgian Jesuits of the Society of Jesus, including Fathers Henri Depelchin and Charles Croonenberghs, the station was established on a 3 500 Ha farm purchased for £800 as a malaria-free halfway house, serving as a stopover point for missionaries bound for the Zambesi Mission. Here the missionaries managed to grow wheat, citrus fruits, figs and vines. The mission was successful, and the local baPhalane slowly converted to Christianity. Construction of key structures began in 1885 with the priests' house, followed by a school in 1886 and a chapel. Later the mission provided the region's first inn which acted as a landmark for overland routes to the interior. When the Zambezi missions was closed, the Vleischfontein mission was handed over to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1894. Amid shifts in missionary logistics, it saw further development by orders including the Holy Family Sisters and Dominican Sisters, who added a church, convent, grotto, and additional housing. In 1948, with the introduction of apartheid under the change to Nationalist Party government, the district was officially designated as a "Whites-Only" area. The Oblates were forced to sell the mission and leave, relocating to the nearby Silkaatskop. Vleischfontein was then purchased by a local farmer. The mission was temporarily reopened in 1976. When the area became part of the Madikwe Game Reserve in the 1980s it was shut down permanently. Today, remnants such as the original priests' house, chapel, grotto, cemetery, and garden walls persist, with the site repurposed by the North West Parks and Tourism Board for staff accommodation and administrative functions. [See Wikipedia, Grokipedia]