About The Morija Art Gallery

Maeder house was built in 1843 by a missionary artisan and artist called Francoir Maeder who used it as his residential place. It is one of the oldest buildings in Lesotho which has survived the Basotho-Boer war of 1858, popularly known as Senekal’s war. Maeder house was later used by Thomas Arbousset’s successor at the mission in Morija, Adolphe Mabille, who brought changes in Morija by increasing the number of teachers training at Normal school (Thabeng) as well as Bible school and Theological school (Koapeng). Mabille used Maeder house to provide printing works and supervised the translation of the Bible in Sesotho. The building is currently home to the Morija Arts Centre and also used by other local artists to display and facilitate sales of artworks and handicrafts.