Vredefort (locally /ˈfrɪərdəfɔːrt/, Afrikaans: [ˈfriədəfɔrt]) is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa with cattle, peanuts, sorghum, sunflowers and maize being farmed.

The town was established in 1876 on a farm called Visgat, on the Vredefort impact structure, the largest and oldest visible bolide impact crater in the world (with a diameter of 300 kilometres (190 mi)).

It was this approximately 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) wide bolide that led to the preservation of the gold-bearing reefs of the Free State some 2.02 billion years ago.

The Vredefort Dome is currently the largest and one of the oldest known asteroid impact sites in the world.

[3] It is South Africa's seventh World Heritage Site and its status is largely due to the efforts of research scientists from Wits University.