The oldest Moravian mission village
in Africa with church buildings and school
dating back to 1738, Genadendal is a charming
village a mere 6 km from Greyton. In 1737 a young
bachelor missionary Georg Schmidt was sent to the Cape. Schmidt settled on 23 April 1738 in Baviaan Kloof (Kloof of the Baboons) in the Riviersonderend Valley. He became acquainted with an impoverished and dispersed Khoi people who were practically on the threshold of complete extinction.

There were already 13 farms in the vicinity and within a short while he formed a small Christian congregation and he began to teach the Khoi to read and write. When he began to baptise his converts there was great dissatisfaction among the Cape Reformed clergy. According to them, Schmidt was not an ordained minister and so was not permitted to administer the sacraments. Consequently he had to abandon his work, and in 1744, after seven years at Baviaans Kloof, he left the country.

Only in 1792 did Moravians obtain permission to resume Schmidt's work at Baviaans Kloof. When the three men arrived they discovered the ruins of Schmidt's dwelling, with a great pear tree in the garden. There was also an old woman, Magdalena, whom Schmidt had baptized, whose acquaintance they made. She was able to show them a Bible (on display in the museum) which Schmidt gave to her. The missionaries listened with amazement when she asked her daughter to read a portion of the New Testament to them.

The number of inhabitants increased so much that at one stage Genadendal was the largest settlement in the Colony after Cape Town. In 1806, the name of the mission station was changed to Genadendal (Valley of Grace). To maintain the number of inhabitants permanently on the mission station job creation was necessary and in this way the mission station developed into a self- sufficient community. Home industries flourished, including amongst others the forging of knives (the well known herneuters) and Genadendal became an important educational centre. The first Teachers' Training College in South Africa, now the Museum building was erected in 1838.

Today, the town is frozen in the past. Streets of neat black-thatched white-walled cottages, the Moravian Mission Church (dating back from 1738) groves of oak trees have survived from the beginning of the last century. There is also an old water mill with stone ground flour and traditionally baked bread (baked in open-air ovens).

An old bell, formerly used to summon people to the church, children to the school, and to signal the beginning and end of shifts for workers in the fields, has been proclaimed a historical monument.

A small art centre and gift shop can also be found in the town. One of the other main tourist attractions of the area is the fairly strenuous 25,3km circular Genadendal Hiking Trail through the Riviersonderend.