Weskoppies is a public psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

 in Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

, Gauteng

Gauteng

Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...

. It is situated to the west of the city centre and was built on the site of the old botanical gardens.

The hospital is used by the University of Pretoria

University of Pretoria

The University of Pretoria is a multi campus public research university located in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa...

 and the University of Limpopo

University of Limpopo

The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa...

, amongst others, as a teaching hospital.

History

In 1892 the first psychiatric institution in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, the Krankzinnigengesticht, was established in 1892, later being renamed as the Weskoppies Hospital.