Alnwick Castle

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The castle in 2009
Alnwick Castle, by Alexander Francis Lydon , 1870

Alnwick Castle is a castle complex in Alnwick , Northumberland, England . It is the second largest aristocratic seat in England after Windsor Castle and the ancestral home of the Percy family , whose members had held the title of Earl of Northumberland since the beginning of the 14th century and whose head had the title of Duke of Northumberland since the 18th century . Alnwick Castle is located on the River Aln , from which it takes its name.

history

The facility, built by Yves de Vescy in 1096, was intended to secure the northern territory of England against the Scots and was first mentioned in a document at the end of the 11th century.

The oldest surviving structures in the castle include the so-called Abbot's Tower and the Constable's Tower , both of which were built in the early 14th century by Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick .

After the complex had already been rebuilt and restored in the middle of the 16th century, Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland , had the castle extensively renewed and changed from 1750. Most of the work was done under the direction of the architect Robert Adam .

During the 19th century, the interior was again renovated . Anthony Salvin and Luigi Canina were responsible for their redesign in the neo-renaissance style .

The Alnwick Garden goes back to the year 1750th

Film set

The castle has been a backdrop for a variety of TV series and films. The most famous films include:

Keeper of an important historical artifact

Alnwick Castle is the keeper of only three fully preserved English longbows that do not come from archaeological finds ( time capsules ). It dates from the Battle of Hedgeley Moor (1464) during the Wars of the Roses and has been preserved by the castle's owners over the centuries.

literature

  • Paul Johnson: Castles of England, Scotland and Wales. Weidenfield and Nicolson, London 1989, ISBN 0-297-83162-3 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. alnwickcastle.com ( Memento of July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 55 ° 24 ′ 57.6 "  N , 1 ° 42 ′ 25.2"  W.