Carmarthen Castle
| Carmarthen Castle | ||
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 The gatehouse of Carmarthen Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Caerfyrddin | |
| Creation time : | 11th century | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 51 '20.2 " N , 4 ° 18' 16.6" W | |
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Carmarthen Castle ( Welsh Castell Caerfyrddin ) is a ruined castle in Wales in Great Britain . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is located in the center of the city of Carmarthen .
history
Contested border castle in the 12th and 13th centuries
During the Norman conquest of South West Wales , a first Norman castle , called Rhydygors , was built at Carmarthen around 1094 by William FitzBaldwin, the sheriff of Devon , but it was believed to be further downstream and was destroyed by a Welsh attack in 1096. Around 1105 the castle was built in its current location. The castle was of great strategic importance due to its location on the Tywi, which is navigable to Carmarthen . It was built at the direct instigation of King Henry I and remained directly under the Crown. As one of the most important Anglo-Norman fortresses in South West Wales, the castle was often contested. During the rebellion after the death of Henry I in South Wales , it was conquered in 1137 by Owain Gwynedd and his brother Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd, but their forces were not strong enough to keep the castle permanent. Favored by the anarchy in England, she was able to recapture Prince Cadell ap Gruffydd von Deheubarth in 1146 . However, his brother and successor Rhys ap Gruffydd had to hand them over to the king again in 1158 after Henry II's campaign in Wales . As early as 1159, Rhys ap Gruffydd attempted another attack on the castle, but he could only conquer the city before the castle was horrified by a force under Reginald de Dunstanville . Heinrich II had the castle expanded from 1181 to 1183. After the death of Henry II, Rhys ap Gruffydd besieged the castle again in 1189 and 1196, but both sieges were unsuccessful. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth von Gwynedd was only able to conquer and destroy the castle after a five-day siege in December 1215 in the wars at the end of the reign of King John Ohneland . The fall of the most important royal castle in the Tywi Valley also resulted in the conquest of Kidwelly , Llansteffan , St Clears , Laugharne and Newport Castle . In the Aberdyfi Agreement , Carmarthen Castle Maelgwn ap Rhys was added, but as early as the Anglo-Welsh War of 1223 , William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, was able to recapture the castle for the English king. William Marshal strengthened the castle by building stone walls around the castle hill. His brother Richard Marshal besieged during his rebellion against King Henry III. from the end of 1233 together with a Welsh force of Rhys Gryg , Maelgwn Fychan , the son of Maelgwn ap Rhys, Owain ap Gruffydd and troops from Llywelyn ap Iorwerth for three months. The besiegers built a temporary bridge over the Tywi to cut off the castle from the river supply, but in March 1234 a relief fleet coming from Bristol under the leadership of Henry de Trubleville broke the lock, so the siege was lifted. In the fighting, Rhys Gryg suffered the severe wounds of which he died shortly afterwards. Under Edward I , who made the castle the seat of the royal justiciar of South Wales, it was further expanded and strengthened towards the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries.
From the castle to the administrative center of modern times
During the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr , the castle was conquered by the insurgents in 1403 and shortly afterwards recaptured by King Henry IV . However, in 1405 it fell again into the hands of Owain Glyndŵr and could not be recaptured by the English until 1409. At the beginning of the Wars of the Roses , Edmund Tudor , the half-brother of King Henry VI, took over in August 1456 . the management of the castle by Gruffudd ap Nicolas , the previous legal advisor of South Wales. As a result, William Herbert and Walter Devereux , two leading partisans of the House of York with a 2,000-strong army marched from Herefordshire to Carmarthen, captured the castle and took Edmund Tudor prisoner. He died in captivity of the plague on November 1, 1456, before the birth of his son Heinrich, who later became Henry VII.
During the Civil War , Carmarthen was fought between royalists and supporters of Parliament. After the end of the civil war, the walls of the castle were partially torn down, but the complex continued to serve as an administrative center. A prison designed by John Nash was built in the former courtyard from 1789 . The county court buildings and a police station were later built within the walls . The prison was closed in 1922 and demolished by 1936. From 1935 the prison was built by Percy Thomas designed County Hall, which was completed by 1955 and serves as the meeting place of the county council and as the seat of the county administration.
Between 2002 and 2005, the preserved structures of the castle were restored by Cadw . The remains of the castle that have been preserved are freely accessible today.
investment
Ring wall, castle gate and keep
The castle was built as a moth on a rock above the Tywi and controlled both the river, which was previously navigable to Carmarthen, and the surrounding settlement. Today it is located in the center of Carmarthen and is surrounded by modern buildings and streets. The almost square outer bailey to the east of the keep was completely covered by the former prison and later by the County Hall. Only the western parts of the castle are left as ruins. The gatehouse from the late 13th century, the best preserved part of the castle, consists of a gateway secured by machicolations and cast holes, which is flanked by two round towers. A restored spiral staircase leads to the upper floor, which used to be the constable's apartment . To the south of the gatehouse, the remains of the curtain wall extend to the southwest tower, which changes from a square floor plan to a round tower, and to the ruins of a square walled tower. To the north of the gatehouse, the curtain wall leads to the keep , the oldest part of the castle. The original castle mound of the Motte was enclosed by walls in the 13th century and converted into a shell keep . In front of the Keep, between the castle and prison walls, is the mid-19th century Castle House , which used to be the police station and now houses the Carmarthen and Carmarthenshire tourist information center.
County Hall
The County Hall, built until 1955, towers over the old castle and prison walls. The three-storey, four-winged building was made of gray Forest of Dean stone with white Portland stone edging in the chateau style, the steep roof is made of gray-green slate. The wide Portland stone portal on the north side is adorned with eleven reliefs by David Evans depicting county government responsibilities such as health care, education, and tax collection.
literature
- Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles - a Guide by Counties. Boydell Press, Woodbrige 2000. ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , pp. 42f
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ British listed Buildings: Carmarthen Castle, Carmarthen. Retrieved September 8, 2013 .
- ^ Robert R. Davies: The age of conquest - Wales, 1063 - 1415. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-820878-5 , p. 46
- ^ Oxford DNB: Edmund Tudor. Retrieved September 9, 2013 .
- ↑ Coflein: Carmarthen County Hall. Retrieved September 9, 2013 .
- ↑ Thomas Lloyd u. a .: Buildings of Wales - Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Yale University Press, New Haven 2006, ISBN 978-0-300-10179-9 , p. 139.
- ↑ Visit Carmarthenshire: Castle House. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 14, 2013 ; Retrieved September 9, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
