Newcastle Castle (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Newcastle Castle is a medieval fortress in Newcastle upon Tyne in the English county of Tyne and Wear . She gave the city its name. The most important, still preserved buildings are the Donjon , Castle Keep called, and the fortified Barbican called Black Gate .
The area was already used by the Romans to build a fort and a settlement. Pons Aelius protected a bridge over the Tyne . In 1080 a moth was built in place of the Roman fort , the New Castle upon Tyne (Eng .: new castle above the Tyne). Robert Curthose , the eldest son of William the Conqueror , had it built after he died of the attack on Malcolm III. had returned south from Scotland . The stone donjon was built between 1172 and 1177 at the behest of Henry II in place of Curthose's castle. The Black Gate was Henry III. add between 1247 and 1250.
The castle is in the center of Newcastle, east of the main train station. The 23-meter gap between the donjon and the barbican is almost completely filled by a railway bridge. The East Coast Main Line runs over them from Newcastle to Scotland . The Castle Keep and Black Gate were built before Newcastle's city walls were built. Its construction began around 1265 and did not include the castle. Nothing has survived from the Roman fort or the first moth. The Donjon has been listed by English Heritage as a First Grade Historic Building and is a Scheduled Monument .
Donjon and Black Gate are now managed by the Old Newcastle Project as a Newcastle Castle tourist attraction and have been open to the public since March 21, 2015.
Early history
In the middle of the 2nd century, the Romans built the first bridge over the Tyne on the site where the city of Newcastle is today. The bridge was called Pons Aelius (German: Bridge of Aelius). Aelius was the family name of Emperor Hadrian , who was responsible for building Hadrian's Wall along the Tyne and Solvay valleys. The Romans built a fort to protect the river crossing at the foot of the Tynes Gorge. The fort was on a ledge above the new bridge.
At some point in Anglo-Saxon times , what is now Newcastle was called Monkchester . At the end of the 7th century a cemetery was created in place of the Roman fort.
Norman castle
In 1080 William the Conqueror sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend his kingdom against the Scots. After his attack, Robert went to Monkchester and began building the new castle. It was built in the shape of a moth, i.e. as a wooden tower on an earth wall, which was surrounded by a moat and a wooden picket fence.
In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria , Robert de Mowbray , rose against William Rufus and William sent an army north to quell the revolt and take the castle. Since then, the castle has been the property of the crown and an important base for the king to control the barons in the north of his empire.
The new, stone castle
Today there is no trace of the tower and wall of the motte left. Henry II had it replaced with a rectangular stone donjon, which was built in 1172–1177 at a cost of £ 1,444. A stone outer bailey in a triangular shape replaced the earlier one made of wood. An outer gatehouse - or barbican -, the Black Gate , was built in 1247–1250, at the time of Henry III. , built.
Another protection for the castle was built at the end of the 13th century in the form of a stone city wall with towers. Strangely enough, this additional protection for the castle led to the neglect of the walls of the castle itself. In 1589, in the time of Elizabeth I , the castle was described as ruinous. From the beginning of the 17th century, the situation worsened with the construction of shops and houses on the property.
English Civil War
In 1643, during the English Civil War , the royalist mayor of Newcastle, Sir John Marley , had the donjon repaired and presumably had the castle fortified. In 1644 the Scottish army crossed the English border to support the parliamentarians . Scottish troops besieged Newcastle for three months before the garrison surrendered. The city wall was badly damaged and the last royalist troops, which surrendered on October 19, 1644, also damaged the keep of the castle before handover.
From the 16th to the 18th century the donjon served as a prison. By 1800 there were a large number of houses within the castle walls.
19th century
In 1809 the Newcastle Corporation bought the donjon and provided it with a roof and battlements. In addition, the private houses within the castle walls were demolished. The donjon were renovated in 1810, 1812 and 1848. In the middle of the 19th century, the management of the railway line via Newcastle upon Tyne led to the construction of a bridge north of the donjon that spanned the courtyard. As a result, only the donjon and the barbican have survived to this day.
20th century
The donjon was restored from the 1960s to the 1980s. Crumbling outer walls were replaced and the interiors were cleaned.
Black Gate
The Black Gate was added to Newcastle Castle between 1247 and 1250 as an additional barbican in front of the castle's former northern gatehouse. It consisted of two towers and a passage between them. There was a vaulted guard room on either side of the passage. At the front (on the west side) there was a drawbridge and another at the back. There was also a portcullis that could be pulled up and down to block the passage.
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The first building of this kind had a flat roof, but in 1618 King James I leased the gatehouse to the courtier Alexander Stephenson . Stephenson had the gatehouse completely rebuilt, with the upper floors being redesigned. Stephenson then leased the Black Gate to various tenants; one of them was a merchant named Patrick Black . He gave the building his name.
Houses were later built along both sides of the passage and part of the building became a pub . In the early 19th century, Black Gate became a home for the poor; at times up to 60 people lived there.
Black Gate was leased to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1880s , who extensively renovated it from 1883 to 1885. The Society had the top floor and a roof painted with pitch built. She has held her regular general meetings there since then. The drawbridges were replaced by solid wooden bridges.
today
The donjon is listed as a historical building of the first degree, as well as a Scheduled Monument . It is an almost square building with a footprint of 19 m × 17 m and 25 m high. The entrance leads via a series of stairs to the upper floor and into the knight's hall, which is 9.1 mx 7.3 m, the largest room in the donjon. The “Black Gate” was reached via a drawbridge that led over a moat. A wooden bridge has now replaced this drawbridge. The original gatehouse had a portcullis, the photos of which can still be seen in the masonry. The donjon now belongs to the City of Newcastle upon Tyne and is administered by the Society of Antiqaries of Newcastle upon Tyne , one of the oldest antiquarian societies in the world.
You can visit the donjon today. The East Coast Main Railway runs past him. From its battlements you have a good view of the river bank of the Tyne, the cathedral and the main train station. The castle is said to be haunted by ghosts and is the subject of many paranormal investigations. It appeared on an episode of the television series Most Haunted .
Castle Keep and Black Gate were recently restored by the Old Newcastle Project , an organization supported by the Lottery Heritage Fund. The two buildings reopened on March 21, 2015. The aim was to make it completely accessible to the public as a sight and for teaching purposes.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 1.
- ^ A b Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 2.
- ^ Newcastle upon Tyne: Roman Origins: Pons Aelius, Condercum and Segedunum . Retrieved June 8, 2015.
- ^ A b Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 4.
- ^ Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 5.
- ^ A b Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 6.
- ^ Tony Henderson: Castle Keep in Newcastle re-opens after revamp to tell the history of the city . In: nechronicle . March 17, 2015. Accessed June 8, 2015.
- ^ A b Welcome to the Castle Keep, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. . In: castlekeep-newcastle.org.uk . Archived from the original on May 28, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
- ^ A b c Barbara Harbottle: The Castle of Newcastle upon Tyne . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977. ISBN 978-0-901082-65-7 . P. 21.
- ↑ Most Haunted . In: RadioTimes . Retrieved June 8, 2015.
- ^ The Society's History . Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
literature
- GL Dodds: Historic Sites of Northumberland & Newcastle upon Tyne. Albion Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9525122-1-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 58 ′ 8 " N , 1 ° 36 ′ 38" W.