Conwy Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Picture from 1961
Curtain wall
Conwy Castle courtyard

Conwy Castle (also Conway Castle ) is the ruin of a medieval castle in County Gwynedd , built between 1283 and 1287, on the banks of the Conwy Estuary , which dominates the entrance to the Welsh town of Conwy .

In 1986 the castle was added to the list of UNESCO cultural monuments.

investment

The castle is the first of nine castles Edward I built to secure his domain in Wales. They were all designed by its builder James of St. George , then the leading defensive architect at the time. It served as a replacement for Deganwy Castle Henry III, destroyed by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1263 . of England .

Conwy Castle is a spur castle around 90 by 30 meters, making it one of the largest castles in Wales. It lies on a hill between the Conwy and one of its tributaries. It has an irregular elongated shape, as the walls follow the terrain. The still fully intact circular wall is interrupted by eight almost identical round defensive towers , each twelve meters in diameter, four of which are in the north and four in the south. The courtyard is divided into two sections one behind the other by a wall.

The facility is similar to that of Caernarfon Castle . It differs from the other castles, Harlech Castle and Beaumaris Castle , designed by the same architect , in which an outer almost square courtyard concentrically surrounds an inner one. This type of kennel was not used in Conwy because of the terrain. A kennel can only be found in Conwy on the two short sections of the curtain wall as a gate kennel in front of the main gate and the postern at the other end.

literature

  • David James Cathcart King: The Castle in England and Wales. An interpretative history . Routledge, 1988, ISBN 978-0-918400-08-6 .
  • Kelly De Vries: Medieval Military Technology . Broadview Press, Peterborough [et al.] 1992, ISBN 978-0-921149-74-3 , pp. 245 ff .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Welsh Assembly Government: Conwy Castle ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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. , Accessed August 7, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cadw.wales.gov.uk
  2. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage List , accessed on August 7, 2010.
  3. ↑ K. De Vries: Medieval Military Technology , p. 245 ff.
  4. ↑ DJC King: The Castle in England and Wales , S. 113th

Coordinates: 53 ° 16 ′ 48 "  N , 3 ° 49 ′ 32"  W.