Llangollen
Llangollen [ ɬanˈɡoɬen ] is a market town and community in the county of Denbighshire in north-east Wales , United Kingdom . The place is on the River Dee on the edge of the Berwyn Mountains .
Tourism is of great economic importance because the place is on the main route to Snowdonia in north Wales. There are also some historically interesting relics in the area: the Valle Crucis Abbey, founded in 1200 ; the column of Eliseg , a remarkable stone cross from the 9th century; the Castle Dinas Bran , celebrations of Welsh princes from the 13th century, as well as a bridge over the Dee from the 14th century.
Eisteddfod
Llangollen is home to the International Eisteddfod, which was launched in 1946 as an expression of international understanding . The annual Welsh Arts Festival features choirs, folk dance groups and artists from around the world. In the beginning there were 42 choirs from 14 countries; today more than 120 choirs and dance groups from over 30 countries take part. The festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world and attracts around 130,000 visitors during the festival week. In 2004 the Llangollener Eisteddfod was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - albeit unsuccessfully.
Urban development
Llangollen is located in an area that has been primarily used for agriculture for centuries. The local water mill is over 600 years old; it supplied the farmers with their flour. Sheep farming was predominant and the weaving of hard-wearing textiles had a permanent place on the farms. Several mills for processing wool and cotton were later built along the Dee.
To get to Llangollen on the north bank of the Dee, one crosses the Bishop Trevor Bridge , built in the 14th century by the same bishop and expanded into a beautiful arched bridge under Elizabeth I. The city has long been a main stop for travelers to North Wales and Ireland, as evidenced by the many stagecoach inns along Bridge Street and Church Street. Real prosperity did not set in until the Victorian era with Holyhead Road, built by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826 . This created a continuous connection from the port of Holyhead on Anglesey through northern Wales to London; the road is now a historic highway. As a result, Llangollen quickly developed from a small Welsh village into a sizable town. The city's most impressive Victorian buildings can be found on Castle Street ; the street is the shopping street of Llangollen and was built between 1850 and 1870 as a direct link from Telford's new highway to the bridge over the Dee . The showpiece of Victorian architecture is the town hall, built in 1867.
Shortly before the Victorian era, the Llangollen Canal was built as a junction of the Shropshire Union Canal , a so-called narrowboat canal. The most spectacular piece of this canal is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct , a 35 m high and 305 m long trough bridge , downstream from Llangollen. Although primarily intended for the transport of lime, slate, coal and wool, the new waterway has also triggered tourism. The attraction of the Victorian Llangollen were the Original Pleasure Boats of Captain Jones . The barges took visitors to sights such as the Valle Crucis Abbey , Eliseg's Pillar and the Horseshoe Falls .
The Vale of Llangollen Railway reached Llangollen in 1861. In the mid-1960s, the line between Ruabon and Bala was closed. A few enthusiasts ensured the reopening as the Llangollen Railway museum in September 1975 . In the meantime, 12 kilometers of the route along the Dee Valley are operated.
Queen Victoria used the rail link to Llangollen when she visited Llangollen in 1889. She had already visited the town in 1832, shortly before her accession to the throne. On the occasion of the anniversary of her reign, Llangollen honored the regent in 1899 with the construction of the Victoria Promenade on the south bank of the Dee. Visitors and locals still stroll along the river bank on it.
Plas Newydd
On Butler Hill on the outskirts of Llangollen stands Plas Newydd ( Welsh for “new palace”), one of the most whimsical houses in the United Kingdom, as is the fate of the two women who lived there for 50 years, one of the most whimsical of its time. Eleanor Butler and her companion Sarah Ponsonby , who both came from Irish aristocratic families, defied the applicable conventions, left Ireland and rented the cottage in Llangollen on the outskirts of the city to spend their lives there together. The two hermit women came to be known as the Ladies of Llangollen and many celebrities of their time came to visit them, including William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester , Lakeland poet William Wordsworth , Sir Walter Scott and actress Sarah Siddons .
The cottage was originally a simple building, square and covered with stone slabs. The upper floor had three windows and the lower floor had one each to the right and left of the central door. Between 1789 and 1814, the exterior became increasingly sophisticated. In addition, a cellar and another room were added to the rear. In 1798 the first phase of redesign was completed; the house now had three-part windows on the first floor and a Gothic lancet window above the library. The bay windows on the upper floor were added by 1814. Below, carved oak canopies have been placed over the windows. At that time the house was certainly the most beautiful; a whitewashed Gothic cottage (the Elizabethan half-timbered cladding only got the house in Victorian times) in the middle of flower beds and espalier fruit and with a view of a green meadow.
The interior of the house is a special curiosity. Those who visited the ladies for the second time had to bring either a wood carving or a piece of colored glass as a gift . One room after another was paneled with these gifts of friendship; the pieces of glass served as window panes. The oak carvings in the small anteroom go back to the year 1192.
Castell Dinas Brân
Although there are only a few remains of Dinas Bran Castle wall , you can hardly miss the ruins on the hill on the edge of the Dee Valley. The name Dinas refers to a ring wall from the Iron Age, which the medieval castle builders designed according to their own purposes. The Iron Age rampart and the moat, which encircle the eastern part of the hill in a wide arc, are clearly visible. There is also a medieval moat dug into the rock, 4.5 to 6 m deep, the side walls of which are still vertically in place.
The castle is of an unexpected size; the rectangular floor plan is more than 90 m long and 40 m wide. At the eastern end of the area are the remains of a small square keep on ground floor level, which is perhaps older than the rest of the complex. On the northeast corner there are remains of the foundations of a narrow, elongated and unusually designed gatehouse with twin towers of English design. There is also something astride the southern perimeter wall that could have been a D-shaped tower. The upright main masonry, easily recognizable from the valley, is all that was left of the castle's hall.
Dinas Brân (Welsh for Fortress of Bran), which is also a possible Grail Castle , was probably built around 1260 by Gruffydd Maelor ap Madog , prince of this part of Powys. The castle seems to have served more prestige than a real need for protection, and in that respect it arguably surpassed all other Welsh castles. In 1277, when Edward I's army was advancing relentlessly, the crew finally burned the castle down. The English commander Henry de Lacy suggested in a letter to the king that the castle be rebuilt because there was no stronger one in Wales and none larger in England. But his proposal was not heard, the troops withdrew, and Dinas Brân was left to decay.
swell
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Britannica CD 99 Multimedia Edition
- HE Conrad: Wales ; Prestel Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7913-0594-8 , p. 156.
- Elizabeth Mavor: The Ladies of Llangollen : A Study of Romantic Friendship; Daphne, 1st edition, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-89137-016-4 .
- Castles in Wales . The Automobile Association; The Wales Tourist Board, 1982, ISBN 0-86145-125-2 , p. 71.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Castles of Wales: Castell Dinas Bran. Retrieved October 30, 2013 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 58 ′ N , 3 ° 10 ′ W