Caernarfon Castle
| Caernarfon Castle | ||
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 View of the castle at low tide |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Caernarfon; Caernarvon Castle | |
| Creation time : | 11th century | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 8 '21.7 " N , 4 ° 16' 36.8" W | |
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Caernarfon Castle (also Caernarvon , Welsh Castell Caernarfon ) is a ruined castle in Gwynedd in Wales . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is an outstanding example of European military architecture of the late 13th and early 14th centuries and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site .
location
The castle is located at the southern end of the Menai Strait between North Wales and the island of Anglesey . Together with Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey, which lies at the northern end of the Menai Strait, this strategically important waterway between the west and north Welsh coast could be controlled from the castle. Anglesey was also the granary of Wales, which supplied all of North Wales with, so that in the event of a Welsh rebellion, the two castles could interrupt the grain supply to North Wales. The castle is located north of the confluence of the Seiont River in Menai Street ; its location meant that it could be supplied by ships in the event of a defense. North of the Castle is also available from I. Eduard founded fortified city Caernarfon .
history
According to tradition, the residence of Rhodri the Great was already in the 9th century in the settlement called Caer Seiont in Welsh . A first castle was built as a motte by Hugh d'Avranches around 1090 . In 1115 the castle was conquered by the Welsh, after which it remained in the possession of the princes of Gwynedd .
During his second campaign against Gwynedd , the English King Edward I reached Caernarfon from Chester in May 1283. Construction work on the new castle and the new city began as early as June 1283. The previous Welsh settlement was destroyed and the residents displaced. The new town and castle were to become the capital of the new Wales, ruled by English princes, and to form an English settlement focus in the region that was previously part of the Welsh heartland. Eduard was probably influenced by the nearby Roman fort Segontium , which is closely connected to the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus , when he chose the location of the new capital . The castle gained further symbolic significance through the birth of Edward's son Eduard , who was probably born in the castle and thus in Wales in 1284. The king made his son the first English Prince of Wales in 1301 , thus confirming his claim to the conquered Welsh principalities.
The castle was designed by James of St. George , who was also the builder of the other new royal castles in Wales . In the first construction phase, the moat was dug up to 1294 and the Eagle Tower , the city walls and the southern outer wall of the castle were completed. The north side facing the city was only protected by the wide moat when the rebels under Madog ap Llywelyn overran the city walls and then the moat and so conquered the castle during the Welsh uprising of 1294 . They cruelly murdered the castle's constable , Roger de Pulesdon, burned the castle and damaged the city walls. After the rebellion was put down, the castle was again in English hands in the summer of 1295, and construction began on November 11, 1295. The damaged walls were repaired and the missing north wall with the King's Gate was built. With an interruption from 1300 to 1304 due to the war against Scotland , construction continued until 1330 when it was stopped. Since then the castle has remained almost unchanged. Of the £ 80,000 spent building Edward I's Welsh castles, over £ 25,000 had been spent building Caernarfon Castle by 1330.
Contrary to the plans of Edward I, however, the castle never served as the residence of the English princes of Wales, only Otton de Grandson , the legal advisor of North Wales , used the castle temporarily as a residence. Edward's son Edward II never returned to Caernarfon as an adult. In the middle of the 14th century the castle was manned by a 36-man garrison, but otherwise only served as a warehouse for the other royal castles in Wales. During the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr , the occupation was able to hold the castle despite the conquest of the entire surrounding area and fended off two sieges by the rebels in 1403 and 1404. Unlike most other Welsh castles, the castle was well maintained after the end of the Rebellion and the Wars of the Roses , only falling into disrepair towards the end of the 16th century.
During the English Civil War the castle was occupied by royalist troops. The castle was conquered by parliamentary troops and recaptured by the royalists, and it was not until 1646 that the royalist occupation finally surrendered to the parliamentary troops. A 1660 by King Charles II. Arranged razing the castle was not executed, probably the only buildings were demolished in the castle courtyards. In the following centuries the castle continued to deteriorate. From 1840 restoration work began under the supervision of Anthony Salvin . From 1870 the Well Tower and other parts of the castle were restored, and further work was carried out from 1908 to prepare the castle for the first inauguration of the heir to the throne Edward as Prince of Wales. This took place on July 13, 1911. The second solemn investiture to the Prince of Wales took place in the castle on July 1, 1969, when Prince Charles received this title.
Together with three other castles and the city wall of Conwy , the castle and the city wall of Caernarfon were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986. The castle is now administered by Cadw and can be visited.
investment
The new castle, built from 1283 onwards, was built as a symbol of English rule over the defeated Welsh. By not having a double ring of walls, its defensive strength is not as evident as at Harlech Castle or Beaumaris Castle , but the architecture makes it one of the most impressive castles in Wales. The city walls and the fortifications of the castle formed a unit, with the castle as the seat of the governor and the garrison playing a key role in defense.
The floor plan of the mighty, elongated complex is reminiscent of an hourglass . The 160 m long castle was originally divided at its narrowest point by a transverse wall into an upper and a lower courtyard. The 11th century moth was integrated into the construction of the castle, and the eastern courtyard owes its shape to it. It was not until 1870 that the old castle hill was removed and the courtyard leveled. This means that the eastern courtyard is higher than the western courtyard. The circular wall, some 6 m thick and around 18 m high at the base of the wall, contains two battlements on the south side with numerous archery slits, the later north wall is somewhat thinner, simpler and has no battlements within the wall. The masonry made of light gray limestone was elaborately designed with narrow strips of red sandstone , especially on the north side, based on the model of the city wall of Constantinople . In contrast to the other new royal castles in Wales, Caernarfon was not given round towers for reasons of representation, but a total of seven large and two smaller octagonal towers. The twin towers of the two archways also have a polygonal floor plan. The main entrance to the castle is the King's Gate facing the city in the north wall. The mighty complex with twin towers, drawbridges, several gate wings and cast holes was never completed, the second floor is open. The gate is adorned with a sculpture depicting Eduard II. The Queen's Gate on the southeast corner of the complex was not so heavily fortified, but this gate castle also has twin towers, two drawbridges and cast holes. Today the gate can only be reached via a ramp that leads to the level of the former moth. Like the King's Gate, the Queen's Gate was never completed. In the basement of the Eagle Tower there is another entrance through which the castle could be supplied from the river.
The Palas was on the south side of the western courtyard between the Queen's and Chamberlain Tower; only the foundations of it and the kitchen buildings opposite on the north side have survived, but the main living rooms were in the Queen's Tower and Chamberlain, North -East, Granary and Well Tower. Other, partly wooden buildings were built on the inside of the walls and partly also on the towers, but are no longer preserved. The main residential tower of the castle, the Eagle Tower, is located at the western end of the castle. The tower, which is 28 m high up to the battlements, has four floors and is crowned by three turrets adorned with stone eagle sculptures as a symbol of royal power, so that the tower is 39 m high. The tower has its own small gate to the sea, but the associated mooring was probably never completed.
literature
- David James Cathcart King: The Castle in England and Wales. An interpretative history . Routledge, 1988, ISBN 0-918400-08-2 , pp. 115 .
- Reginald Allen Brown: Castles from the air . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [u. a.] 1989, ISBN 0-521-32932-9 , pp. 65-67 .
- Christopher Gravett: The Castles of Edward I in Wales 1277-1307 . Osprey Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-027-7 .
- Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan : III - Part Ib: Medieval Secular Monuments - The Later Castles from 1217 to the present, HMSO, London 2000, ISBN 0-11-300035- 9 , pp. 124-150
- Adrian Pettifer: Welsh castles. A guide by counties . 1st edition, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 0-85115-778-5 , pp. 19-27 ( books.google.de ).
- Geraint Roberts: Welsh castles . 2nd Edition. Y Lolfa Cyf., Talybont 2006, ISBN 0-86243-550-1 , pp. 44-46 ( books.google.de ).
Web links
- Cadw: The castle's website
- Caernarfon Castle on castlewales.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Cadw Listed Building Database Record: Caernarfon Castle. Retrieved April 24, 2014 .
- ↑ UNESCO: Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. Retrieved March 31, 2014 .
- ↑ John Griffiths: The Revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn, 1294-5 , p. 14. In: Transactions of the Caernarfonshire Historical Society Vol. 16 (1955), pp. 12-24 [1] (pdf; 5.42 MB)
- ^ Christopher Gravett: The castles of Edward I in Wales 1277-1307 . Osprey, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-84603-027-7 , p. 24
- ↑ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan : III - Part Ib: Medieval Secular Monuments - The Later Castles from 1217 to the present, HMSO, London 2000, ISBN 0-11-300035 -9 , p. 127
- ^ Caernarfon Castle. Cadw , accessed April 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan : III - Part Ib: Medieval Secular Monuments - The Later Castles from 1217 to the present, HMSO, London 2000, ISBN 0-11-300035 -9 , p. 131
- ↑ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan : III - Part Ib: Medieval Secular Monuments - The Later Castles from 1217 to the present, HMSO, London 2000, ISBN 0-11-300035 -9 , p. 132