Ardbraccan House

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ardbraccan House 1916

Ardbraccan House ( Irish Teach Ard Breacáin , formerly Ardbraccan Palace ) is a country house in palladianistischen style at Navan in Ireland's County Meath . It served the Church of Ireland as the residence of the Bishop of Meath from the 1770s to 1885 .

history

construction

There was an episcopal residence in Ardbreccan for over a thousand years; first the Bishop of Ardbreccan resided there and later, after the amalgamation of many small dioceses with the Diocese of Meath, the Bishop of Meath. In the Middle Ages, a large Tudor style house called St. Mary’s stood here . But in 1734 the Anglican Bishop Arthur Price (1678-1752) decided to replace the decaying country house with a new Georgian-style residence.

First the two side wings of the house were built, only then did Bishop Maxwell add the two-story main block with four bays in the 1770s. The building was partly designed by the German architect Richard Cassels (also called "Richard Castle"). This already had some important Irish buildings, such as B. the Leinster House in Dublin .

Rumor about gravestone theft

Legend has it that tombstones were stolen from the neighboring Catholic Cemetery in Markiestown , a few kilometers away, and used as stairs for the servants' quarters at the residence. Whether it is a modern saga based on the intense rivalry between the Anglican Church of Ireland and the predominantly Roman Catholic population in Bohermeen (who suffered from the discriminatory penal laws and had to pay the tithe to the Church of Ireland) is based, or has an actual background, is not known. It is possible that some building blocks from the dilapidated church from the pre-Reformation period were used in the cemetery for the house, although it is known that all tombstones were removed from this cemetery from the mid to late 18th century.

sale

The new bishop's palace became famous for its architecture. The Bishop of the Church of Ireland, supported by state grants and locally collected tithe, held court from his palace, which was the center of a large estate . But the denationalization of the Church of Ireland in 1871, which was preceded by the cancellation of the tithe paid by the Catholics, severely weakened the survival of the episcopal estate, which now depended solely on the small congregation of the Church of Ireland. In 1885 the bishop sold the property and house and moved to a more suitable, smaller country house nearby. The eldest son of Hugh Law , a former Lord Chancellor of Ireland , bought Ardbraccan House, which remained in his family until 1985, when Colonel Owen Foster sold it to Tara Mines , who used it as a business guest house.

today

At the end of the 1990s, David Maher bought the country house and invested a large sum in its restoration. In 2002, the restoration of won Ardbraccan House price Best Restoration of a private building of An Taisce and was open to the public.

In the early 2000s, County Meath's building authorities approved the construction of a new, major highway that would connect the town of Kells to the highway network and run over part of the historic estate. The Irish Georgian Society and environmentalists criticized the proposal. Nevertheless, the M3 trunk road was opened in 2010.

In 2013 the property was sold to the American businessman and racing team owner Charles Noell .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jack Fagan: US buyer snaps up Meath estate for € 4.9m . In: The Irish Times . May 9, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2019.

swell

Coordinates: 53 ° 39 ′ 39 "  N , 6 ° 44 ′ 59.9"  W.