Built between 1896 and 1899 under Paul Kruger to guard the old Transvaal Republic, the Old Fort at Constitution Hill later became one of Johannesburg’s most notorious prisons. Its Number Four section held black male prisoners, including Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Sobukwe, while the 1909 Women’s Gaol held figures like Winnie Mandela and Albertina Sisulu; Nelson Mandela himself was also held here. The jail complex closed in 1983 and was declared a National Monument in 1964, and the site was later transformed into a human rights precinct anchored by South Africa’s Constitutional Court, opened in 2004 and built partly from bricks salvaged from the demolished awaiting-trial block. The court displays more than 200 contemporary South African artworks, and the wider precinct was recognised as part of a UNESCO Nelson Mandela legacy listing in 2024, making it one of the city’s most significant heritage and events sites.