Heart of Cape Town Museum

The world's first human heart transplant took place in Groote Schuur Hospital, and the Heart of Cape Town Museum occupies that same hospital on Main Road in the Observatory suburb. The surgeon was Christiaan Barnard, educated at the University of Cape Town, and his patient was Louis Washkansky. The museum complex opened on 3 December 2007, the 40th anniversary of the operation.

The museum honours everyone who played a major role in a surgical feat that opened a new era in medicine. It also examines the ethical and moral questions the transplant raised at the time, and shows how Barnard's achievement put South Africa and the University of Cape Town on an international stage.

Groote Schuur Hospital itself was founded in 1938. As a medical museum set inside a working hospital, it suits visitors interested in the history of surgery and in the debates that surrounded this landmark operation.