Bloemfontein: the judicial capital among the roses

One of South Africa's three capitals, Bloemfontein hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal and is known as the 'City of Roses' for its public gardens.

A car remains useful to move in the judicial capital of South Africa, also known as the City of Roses.

The Supreme Court of Appeal, the highest judicial seat in South Africa alongside the Constitutional Court, remains Bloemfontein's most important institutional role.

Steps away, the National Museum displays paleontological finds, including dinosaur fossils discovered in the Free State region.

Moving towards residential neighborhoods one walks through the celebrated rose gardens that give the city its nickname, cultivated in dozens of public parks.

Towards evening, the Museum of Cultural History recounts the region's complex history, from the Boers through the Anglo-Boer Wars to apartheid.

Bloemfontein, whose Afrikaans name means 'fountain of flowers,' hosts an annual rose festival that celebrates the city's horticultural tradition, cultivated in dozens of public parks scattered throughout the urban area.

South Africa remains one of the few countries in the world with three distinct capitals: Pretoria administrative, Cape Town legislative, and Bloemfontein judicial, a historical compromise among the country's different regions dating back to the 1910 unification.