Free State
The Free State Province, "South Africa's breadbasket", sits in the heartland of the Karoo semi-desert.| Tap on a place to explore it |
Photo: Eclipse cz, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Photo: Nolween, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Bloemfontein and Welkom.
Bloemfontein
Photo: Carla de Villiers, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Bloemfontein is popularly and poetically known as "the city of roses", for its abundance of these flowers and the annual rose festival held there. The city hosts numerous museums, including the National Women's Monument, the Anglo-Boer War Museum, the National Museum, and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
Welkom
Photo: Caracal Rooikat, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Welkom is the second-largest city in the Free State province. Welkom is known as "Circle City", "City within a Garden", "Mvela" and "Matjhabeng". The city's Sotho name, Matjhabeng, means 'where nations meet', derived from the migrant labour system, where people of various countries such as Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique met to work in the mines of the gold fields.
Kroonstad
Photo: Leo za1, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Kroonstad is a city of 169,000 people in the Free State Province of South Africa. The main industry of Kroonstad is agriculture. It is the centre of a rich agricultural district, producing maize, wheat, dairy and meat products and wool.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Gariep Dam and Parys.
Gariep Dam
Gariep Dam is a town of 1,600 people in the Free State province of South Africa next to the dam with the same name. It is a popular outdoor destination for boating and water sports enthusiasts, and makes a good break on the journey between Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Parys
Photo: Deon TerBlanche, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Parys is a city in Free State. It is a popular destination for visitors because of its location on the Vaal River and its proximity to Johannesburg. A lot of the tourists are weekend visitors from Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Golden Gate Highlands Park
Photo: Fihliwe, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Golden Gate Highlands Park is in the Free State of South Africa at the foot of the Maluti Mountains.
Bethlehem
Photo: JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Bethlehem is in the Free State subdivision of South Africa. The town is in the heart of the picturesque north-eastern Free State and developed as a service centre.
Vredefort
Photo: Tadpolefarm, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Vredefort is a small farming town in the northern part of Free State. It is an agricultural town where cattle, peanuts, sorghum, sunflowers and maize are farmed. It is home to 3,000 residents. The nearby Vredefort Dome is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Ladybrand
Ladybrand is surrounded by the beautiful hills of the eastern Free State at the foot of the majestic Maluti Mountains in Lesotho. It is a cosmopolitan town serving as a trade and business centre on the border of Lesotho, and is the administrative centre of Mantsopa District Municipality, which includes the towns of Tweespruit, Excelsior, Thaba Phatswa, and Hobhouse.Ficksburg
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Ficksburg is a mountain town of 5,400 people in Setsoto municipality in Thabo Mofutsanyana. Ficksburg is the second busiest and important town in the Eastern Free State region, after Bethlehem.
Clarens
Photo: Munkytattoo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Clarens is a village in the Free State. It attracts more visitors than most other villages for two reasons. Many artists live in or visit the region and the village has several galleries. Also, it is a convenient base for visiting Golden Gate Highlands Park.
Ventersburg
Photo: Shaundd, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ventersburg is a small town in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality of the Free State province in South Africa, 148 km north of Bloemfontein.
Norvalspont
Norvalspont is a small town in Pixley ka Seme District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The name is Afrikaans for Norval’s ferry, and named after an enterprising Scot who constructed a ferry here in 1848.Free State
- Type: State with 2,770,000 residents
- Description: province of South Africa
- Also known as: “Free State Province”, “OFS”, “province of Free State”, “province of the Free State”, and “Province of the Orange Free State”
- Historically known as: “Orange Free State”
- Neighbors: Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, North West Province, and Northern Cape
- Categories: province of South Africa and locality
- Location: South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa
- View on OpenStreetMap
Latitude of center
-28.7854° or 28° 47′ 7″ southLongitude of center
26.4979° or 26° 29′ 52″ eastPopulation
2,770,000Elevation
1,293 metres (4,242 feet)OpenStreetMap ID
node 474842944OpenStreetMap feature
place=state
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.
Satellite Map
Discover Free State from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Afrikaans to Zulu—“Free State” goes by many names.
- Afrikaans: “Vrystaat”
- Arabic: “الولاية الحرة”
- Armenian: “Ֆրի Սթեյթ”
- Asturian: “Provincia del Estáu Llibre”
- Azerbaijani: “Fri Steyt vilayəti”
- Azerbaijani: “Fri-Steyt”
- Basque: “Estatu Askea”
- Belarusian: “Вольная дзяржава”
- Belarusian: “Свабодная дзяржава”
- Belarusian: “Фры-Стэйт”
- Bengali: “ফ্রি অঙ্গরাজ্য”
- Breton: “Stad-Dieub”
- Bulgarian: “Фрайстаат”
- Bulgarian: “Фрайстат”
- Bulgarian: “Фри Стейт”
- Bulgarian: “Фрийстейт”
- Bulgarian: “Фристейт”
- Burmese: “ဩရိန်းပြည်နယ်”
- Catalan: “Estat Lliure”
- Catalan: “Free State”
- Catalan: “Província de l’Estat Lliure d’Orange”
- Catalan: “Província de l’Estat Lliure”
- Catalan: “Província Estat Lliure”
- Cebuano: “Free State”
- Chinese: “Chū-iû Pang-kok Séng”
- Chinese: “自由邦”
- Chinese: “自由邦省”
- Croatian: “Free State”
- Czech: “Svobodný stát”
- Danish: “Free State”
- Danish: “Fristatprovinsen”
- Dutch: “Vrijstaat”
- Dutch: “Vrystaat”
- Esperanto: “Libera ŝtato”
- Esperanto: “Liberŝtato”
- Esperanto: “Oranĝa Liberŝtato”
- Esperanto: “Oranĵa Liberŝtato”
- Esperanto: “Provinco Liberŝtato”
- Estonian: “Free State’i provints”
- Estonian: “Free State”
- Faroese: “Free State”
- Finnish: “Free State”
- Finnish: “Vapaavaltio”
- French: “État libre”
- French: “État-Libre”
- French: “Free State”
- French: “Province de l’État libre”
- Galician: “Estado Libre”
- Georgian: “ფრი-სტეიტი”
- German: “Free State Provinz”
- German: “Free State”
- German: “Freistaat”
- German: “Oranje Freestate”
- German: “ZA-FS”
- Greek: “Ελεύθερο Κράτος της Οράγγης”
- Gujarati: “ફ્રી સ્ટેટ”
- Hakka Chinese: “Chhṳ-yù Pâng-sén”
- Hebrew: “המדינה החופשית”
- Hebrew: “פרובינציית המדינה החופשית”
- Hebrew: “פרובינציית פרי סטייט”
- Hebrew: “פרי סטייט”
- Hindi: “फ़्री स्टेट प्रान्त”
- Hungarian: “Szabadállam”
- Indonesian: “Free State”
- Indonesian: “Negara Bebas”
- Irish: “an Saorstát Oráisteach”
- Italian: “Free State”
- Italian: “Stato libero”
- Japanese: “オレンジ自由州”
- Japanese: “フリー・ステイト州”
- Japanese: “フリーステイト州”
- Kannada: “ಮುಕ್ತ ರಾಜ್ಯ”
- Korean: “오렌지 자유주”
- Korean: “프리스테이트주”
- Latin: “Civitas libera”
- Latin: “Civitas Libera”
- Latvian: “Frīsteita”
- Lithuanian: “Fristeitas”
- Macedonian: “Фри Стејт”
- Macedonian: “Фристејт”
- Malay: “Free State”
- Malayalam: “ഫ്രീ സ്റ്റേറ്റ്”
- Marathi: “फ्री राज्य”
- Marathi: “फ्री स्टेट प्रांत”
- Marathi: “फ्री स्टेट”
- Min Nan Chinese: “Chū-iû Pang-kok Séng”
- Northern Frisian: “Freistoot (Prowins)”
- Northern Frisian: “Freistoot”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Free State”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Freistata”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Fristaten”
- Norwegian Nynorsk: “Free State”
- Norwegian: “Freistata”
- Novial: “Liberi State”
- Nyanja: “Free State”
- Pedi: “Free State”
- Persian: “ایالت آزاد (استان)”
- Persian: “ایالت آزاد”
- Polish: “Wolne Państwo Orania”
- Polish: “Wolne Państwo”
- Portuguese: “Estado Livre”
- Portuguese: “Free state”
- Portuguese: “Província do Estado Livre”
- Pushto: “خپلواک ايالت”
- Romanian: “Free State”
- Romanian: “Provincia Free State”
- Russian: “Свободное государство”
- Russian: “Фри-Стейт”
- Scots: “Free State”
- Serbian: “Fri Stejt”
- Serbian: “Фри Стејт”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Free State”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Slobodna Država”
- Sinhala: “නිදහස් රාජ්ය”
- Sinhala: “ෆ්රී ස්ටේට් පළාත, දකුණු අප්රිකාව”
- Slovenian: “Free State”
- Somali: “Free State Province”
- Southern Sotho: “Foreisetata”
- Southern Sotho: “Foreistata”
- Southern Sotho: “Freistata”
- Spanish: “Free State Province”
- Spanish: “Provincia del Estado Libre”
- Swahili: “Dola Huru”
- Swahili: “Free State”
- Swahili: “Vrystaat”
- Swati: “Free State”
- Swati: “Fuleyistata”
- Swedish: “Free State”
- Swedish: “Fristaten”
- Swedish: “Fristatsprovinsen”
- Tajik: “Фри-Стейт”
- Tajik: “Фрӣ-Стейт”
- Tamil: “விடுதலை இராச்சியம்”
- Telugu: “ఫ్రీ రాష్ట్రము”
- Telugu: “ఫ్రీ స్టేట్”
- Thai: “ฟรีสเตต”
- Tswana: “Foreistata”
- Tswana: “Free State”
- Tswana: “Vrystaat”
- Turkish: “Özgür Devlet”
- Ukrainian: “Вільна держава”
- Ukrainian: “Фрі-Стейт”
- Urdu: “آزاد اسٹیٹ (صوبہ)”
- Urdu: “آزاد ریاست (صوبہ)”
- Urdu: “آزاد ریاست”
- Urdu: “فری سٹیٹ”
- Venda: “Free State”
- Vietnamese: “Free State”
- Volapük: “Libatatiän”
- Waray (Philippines): “Free State”
- Welsh: “Free State”
- Western Panjabi: “فری سٹیٹ”
- Wu Chinese: “自由邦省”
- Xhosa: “IPhondo yaFreyistata”
- Yoruba: “Free State”
- Yue Chinese: “自由邦”
- Zulu: “IFleyistata”
- Zulu: “IFuleyisitata”
South Africa: Must-Visit Destinations
Delve into Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban.
Explore These Curated Destinations
Discover places selected for their distinct character and enduring appeal.
About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Free State”. Photo: Nolween, CC BY-SA 3.0.