Aberystwyth Castle

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Aberystwyth Castle
The heavily damaged remains of the main gate

The heavily damaged remains of the main gate

Alternative name (s): Castell Llanbadarn
Creation time : 12th Century
Conservation status: ruin
Geographical location 52 ° 24 '46.4 "  N , 4 ° 5' 19.3"  W Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '46.4 "  N , 4 ° 5' 19.3"  W.
Height: 20  m
Aberystwyth Castle (Wales)
Aberystwyth Castle

Aberystwyth Castle ( Welsh Castell Llanbadarn ) is a ruined castle in Ceredigion in Wales . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is one of the castles that the English King Edward I built to secure the conquest of Wales from 1277 onwards .

location

The ruin is located on a headland southwest of Aberystwyth city ​​center directly on Cardigan Bay . The ruin lies on a narrow headland up to 20 m above sea level north of the mouth of the Afon Rheidol .

history

Contested border castle in the 12th and 13th centuries

The first castle at Aberystwyth was built by the Norman Lord Gilbert de Clare during the Norman conquest of Wales at the beginning of the 12th century . The fortification , also called Tan-y-Castell , built as a ring wall , was often fought over between Normans and Welsh in the next few years. As early as 1116, the rebellious Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Rhys attacked them unsuccessfully. 1136 Gruffydd ap Rhys was the castle, however, along with its allies Owain Gwynedd during the Welsh revolt after the death of King Henry I conquer. Owain Gwynedd gave the castle to his younger brother Cadwaladr , who used it as a residence during his rule over Ceredigion. However, after Cadwaladr had the son of Gruffydd ap Rhys, Prince Anarawd of Deheubarth murdered in 1143 , Owain Gwynedd had his brother expelled from Ceredigion by his son Hywel from Owain and destroyed the castle.

After King Henry I's first campaign against Wales , Roger de Clare, 2nd Earl of Hertford, built a new castle near Aberystwyth in 1158. As early as 1164 this castle was conquered by Rhys ap Gruffydd von Deheubarth during a renewed Welsh revolt . After the death of Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1197 the castle served his son Gruffydd ap Rhys as a residence, but already in 1197 his brother Maelgwn conquered with the help of Gwenwynwyn von Powys Wenwynwyn Aberystwyth and took his brother prisoner. The castle, later destroyed by Maelgwn himself, was rebuilt in 1206 by Llywelyn from Iorwerth of Gwynedd . He gave the castle to his allies Rhys Ieuanc and Owain ap Gruffydd , the sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys, who died in 1201. However, the two brothers had to hand over the castle to the mercenary leader Falkes de Bréauté in 1211 during King Johann Ohneland's campaign against Llywelyn from Iortwerth , who had the castle expanded. Nevertheless, it was conquered and destroyed by Maelgwn ap Rhys and Rhys Gryg the following year . The castle, which was rebuilt by Maelgwn, fell to Rhys Ieuanc in 1216 due to the Aberdyfi Agreement , but after his death in 1222 again to Maelgwn. Llywelyn from Iorwerth finally had the castle completely destroyed around 1221. Maelgwn Fychan built Trefilan Castle for himself and his successors in the early 1230s.

Fortress of Eduard I.

During King Edward I's first campaign against Wales , his brother Edmund , Lord of Cardigan since 1265 , reached Aberystwyth on July 25, 1277. He began building a new stone castle on the headland over the sea in August. In December, over 1,300 workers, some of them from south-west England, were busy building the castle. The immediate location on the stormy west coast of Wales made the construction work difficult, so that the construction of the castle turned out to be extremely time-consuming and expensive. Roger de Moels , son of Nicholas de Moels , becomes the first constable of the castle in 1278 . A bastide was built around the castle, a fortress town fortified with a stone city wall and inhabited by English settlers. During the Welsh uprising in 1282, Gruffydd ap Maredudd , a lord of Ceredigion, with the help of Rhys Fychan , conquered the castle by ruse on March 24th. Gruffydd had invited Constable Bogo de Knovill to dinner, but took him prisoner and was able to surprise the crew of the castle and capture the castle. The Welsh spared the life of the occupation, but destroyed the castle and the city walls. After the reconquest by the English in May, the king's leading builder, James of St. George , was put in charge of the repairs. James of St. George probably changed the plans, especially for the inner courtyard. His associate, Giles of St. George, took over the site supervision while James returned to North Wales in late summer. Between November 10 and 16, 1284, Edward I was able to spend the night in the castle during his tour after the conquest of Wales. In 1287, construction of the castle was so advanced that a Welsh attack during the Rhys ap Maredudd rebellion failed, and in 1289 the castle was completed after twelve years of construction. The cost of construction was about £ 4,300 .

During the Welsh Rebellion of 1294 , the Welsh attacked the castle again, but the mighty curtain walls withstood these attacks, and after the besieged castle was supplied with supplies from the sea, the siege failed. Just a few years later, at the beginning of the 14th century, the castle began to fall into disrepair. When the Black Prince inspected the castle in 1343, the Long Chamber , the living room, the kitchen wing, the main gate and the drawbridges as well as the outer courtyard were already in ruins. The immediate location on the west coast of Wales made the castle uninhabitable and led to its decline. However, in 1401 the castle withstood a first attack during the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion . In 1403 Owain Glyndŵr began to siege the castle. After a French fleet blocked the castle from sea, it was finally conquered by the Welsh in 1404. Together with Harlech Castle , it served Owain Glyndŵr as one of his most important bases. In 1407 the English heir to the throne Harry of Montmouth tried to recapture the castle. For the first time in Wales he used a firearm, called a messagere , over 2 t heavy bronze cannon, which could fire 13.5 kg projectiles. However, the cannon burst, which is why the siege failed for the time being. The English were only able to recapture the castle after a second siege in the winter of 1408.

The castle since the 15th century

After the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr was put down, the castle finally lost its strategic importance. In 1415 it was still used as a prison for the French captured in the Battle of Agincourt . The castle was only maintained through minor repairs. During the English Civil War , a royal garrison occupied the castle in 1642. In April 1646 the castle was captured by the parliamentary troops and after the end of the Civil War the castle was demolished on Cromwell's orders . In the 18th century in particular, the ruins were used as a quarry. Around 1790 parts of the outer castle complex were destroyed by the creation of a garden, other parts of the western ruins by the promenade built at the beginning of the 20th century. Around 1903 and from 1975 restoration and security work took place on the ruin. The ruin is now managed by Aberystwyth's City Council and is freely accessible.

The northwest gate tower of Aberystwyth Castle

investment

Remnants of the ramparts and moats are still preserved from the 12th century castles. The castle site is south of Tan-y-bwlch Beach near the mouth of the Ystwyth on a hill called Tan-y-Castell.

The castle of Edward I, rebuilt from 1277 onwards, was not built on the site of the old castle, but more than 1.5 km away on a cliff above Cardigan Bay north of the mouth of the Afon Rheidon. The cliff is accessed from the east while it slopes steeply on the other three sides. In the west, the cliff is bordered by the sea, in the north there used to be wet marshland , while the river mouth to the south offered natural protection.

The new castle was one of four castles that Edward I ordered to be built during his first campaign against Wales in 1277. It was once one of the largest castles in Wales and was built in three phases on the plan of an uneven diamond . However, due to the location on a rocky cliff, the builders could not choose a completely symmetrical floor plan. The castle was surrounded by a dry moat to the south, east and north. The castle had a double curtain wall, so that, like the Rhuddlan Castle, which was built at the same time, it was one of the first concentric castles in North Wales and one of the most modern castles of its time. At the corners of the outer and inner curtain wall there were round or semicircular flanking towers or gates. In the northwest, towards the end of the headland, there was another, outer kennel . Access from the east was through a tower in front, an outer gatehouse secured by double towers and an inner gatehouse secured by two other D-shaped towers. Another gate tower led in the north-west of the complex through a gate in the outer wall that was secured with double towers, so that the castle could be supplied from the sea in the event of a siege. The main building of the castle were in the inner courtyard, the palace , which presumably contained the royal apartments, was located along the southeast perimeter wall south of the main gate.

In contrast to the four castles in North Wales that were built after 1282 and are now part of the world cultural heritage , this southernmost of the castles of Edward I has been badly damaged. The first impression is a jumble of tower ruins and remains of foundations. Large parts of the walls were removed by stone robbery in the 18th century or destroyed by coastal erosion or the construction of the promenade in the 19th and 20th centuries. Parts of the outer curtain wall with the ruins of the northern and southern flanking tower have been preserved. From the inner castle wall only small remains of the wall are preserved, of the mighty main gate only walls at ground level are visible. Best preserved is the tall inner gate tower of the northwest gate, which has been preserved as it served as a landmark for Aberystwyth harbor.

Of the buildings within the castle, only the foundations of the palace in the southeast and a rectangular building on the southwest inner wall have been preserved. Large parts of the castle grounds are covered with apparently randomly scattered wall remains. A more recent addition to the castle grounds is a stone circle built in 1916 . The stone circle was erected for the Eisteddfod held in Aberystwyth , the thirteen stones symbolize the then thirteen counties of Wales. In the north-west of the ruin, at the end of the headland, there is a war memorial created by the Italian sculptor Mario Rutelli and inaugurated in 1923 for the fallen soldiers of the First World War. In the past few years, the ruin was integrated into a park with a children's playground and mini golf course.

The ruin seen from the sea, the war memorial on the left

literature

  • David M. Browne: Builth Castle and Aberystwyth Castle 1277-1307 . In: Diane Williams, John R. Kenyon: The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales. Oxbow Books, Havertown 2009, ISBN 978-1-78297-367-6

Web links

Commons : Aberystwyth Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ British Listed Buildings: Aberystwyth Castle, new Promenade, Aberystwyth. Retrieved June 23, 2014 .
  2. Castles of Wales: Aberrheidol Castle. Retrieved June 23, 2014 .
  3. History of Aberystwyth 1100-1300. Retrieved June 24, 2014 .
  4. Ancient Monuments: Castle Tan-y-Castell. Retrieved June 24, 2014 .
  5. ^ Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles. A Guide by Counties . Boydell, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , p. 39