{"id":805185,"date":"2025-01-08T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=805185"},"modified":"2025-01-08T14:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T12:59:29","slug":"inside-the-secretive-castle-in-johannesburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/805185\/inside-the-secretive-castle-in-johannesburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the secretive castle in Johannesburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Kyalami Castle was a former tourist attraction and hotel. However, following the acquisition by the Church of Scientology, it is now a more secretive campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greek millionaire and architect Demos Dinopoulos built the Castle Kyalami, better known as the Kyalami Castle, in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The castle is set on a 9-hectare estate, and the building itself has 5,900 square meters under its roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kyalami Castle has a spa, 24 suites, a luxury hotel, a restaurant, a conference centre and its own helipad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arthurian style features twelve turrets, Gothic arched windows, and more than a dozen outdoor terraces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has a Carrara marble-filled entrance, a classic Greek fountain, wrought-iron chandeliers, coffered ceilings, and wood mouldings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building was originally configured with three self-contained apartments, which included one for Dinopoulos\u2019 son with a spiral staircase to the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dinopoulos stayed in the castle in the nineties, it featured a 22-horse stable, garage and a yacht-building workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He built a yacht in the yacht-building workshop and sailed to the south of Spain, where he remains to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Dinopoulos dreamed of the Kyalami Castle housing his family of five and their future families, it did not work out that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, nine years after he completed it, Dinopoulos sold the castle, which was then converted into a luxury hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stables, garage and workshop areas became The Bailey convention centre and the sunken lounge was levelled and turned into the hotel\u2019s restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During its commercial years, the Kyalami Castle hosted numerous high-profile conferences and events,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It included the Ika East Meets Africa fashion show in 2003 and the Internet Service Providers’ Association of SA (ISPA) iWeek conference in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, the Church of Scientology purchased the Kyalami Castle from Planet Hotels, which ended its time as a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the high walls of the Kyalami Castle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Following the Church of Scientology\u2019s acquisition, the Kyalami Castle can no longer be freely visited and explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is heavily guarded, and visitors are informed that they should make an appointment to enter the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be understood as it serves as a spiritual retreat for Scientologists. It is also one of the church’s six Advanced Organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientology Advanced Organizations \u201cminister very advanced levels of auditing and training and open wide the gateway to the highest spiritual levels\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the Kyalami Castle includes an expansive state-of-the-art auditorium and a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating for more than 200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building also boasts a caf\u00e9, a swimming pool, and a braai-equipped gazebo. In one turret there\u2019s an observation tower where visitors can take in hilltop views that extend for miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also several meeting and conference rooms and multiple outdoor gathering spaces where they hold events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Church of Scientology says the castle stands as a home for the community and a hub of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that it is home to \u201call who share the goal of bettering the lives of individuals and strengthening communities across this region, this nation, and all of Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom here, we share our many humanitarian and community outreach programmes with like-minded individuals, groups, associations and organisations,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe open our doors and make our facilities available to those committed to creating a better Africa and a better world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are dedicated to working with groups of all denominations across the Gauteng Province, the Republic of South Africa and throughout the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the Kyalami Castle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kyalami Castle was a former tourist attraction and hotel, but it is now a more secretive campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":805186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[21292,21293,21291,21290],"class_list":["post-805185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-castle-kyalami","tag-church-of-scientology","tag-demos-dinopoulos","tag-kyalami-castle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806145,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805185\/revisions\/806145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}