Kroonstad

Kroonstad is a town on the N1 highway in Free State province, South Africa, and the fourth largest town in the province after Bloemfontein, Welkom and Bethlehem. It was established in 1855 by the Irish pioneer Joseph Orpen, the first town founded after the Orange Free State's independence, and is said to take its name, meaning crown, from a horse that drowned in a nearby river ford. The 2011 census recorded 168,762 residents, and the town briefly served as the capital of the Orange Free State from March to May 1900 during the Second Boer War, when it also held a concentration camp for Boer women and children. Its economy centers on agriculture, producing maize, wheat, dairy, meat and wool, and it is an important railway junction on the line between Cape Town and Johannesburg.