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Tag Archive: Gouna

THE LITTLE CHURCH IN THE WOODS, KNYSNA

San Ambrosio Church is tucked away in the green heart of the Knysna forest.   It is not glamorous or architecturally impressive, but rather tells the story of 32 pioneering Italian families that were brought to the forest to start up a silk farming industry, but then suffered unexpected hardships. In May 1881 the Italians were brought to Gouna with the intention and under the impression that there were an abundance of mulberry trees in the forest.  They were to start up a silk industry on the African continent.  It turned out that the mulberry trees that the woodcutters referred to were not related by any means to the real mulberry at all. After the project failed the families were abandoned by the government and had to make a living out of agriculture, cattle farming and some also became woodcutters.   Thus in 1891 the small San Ambrosio Church was built to… Read more >

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