Palace of Placentia

Drawing from the 18th century .

The Palace of Placentia was an English royal palace.

history

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester , had a castle built on the south bank of the Thames near Greenwich between 1426 and 1437 , called Bella Court . After Humphrey was charged with high treason in 1447 and died under unsettled circumstances, the palace fell to Queen Margaret of Anjou . She renamed the palace in Palace of Placentia , at times the palace was also described as the Palace of Pleasaunce .

The palace became one of the most important royal palaces for the next two centuries. Under Henry VII the palace was completely rebuilt and is described as a red brick building. It contained a huge banquet hall, and in the park there was a large tournament ground. Henry VIII was born in the palace in 1491 , where he married his first wife Katharina von Aragon and his fourth wife Anna von Kleve . The palace was a favorite residence of his second wife Anne Boleyn , who was eventually brought from the palace to the Tower , where she was executed. Henry VIII's daughters, Maria I and Elizabeth I , were born in the palace and used the palace as a summer residence during their reigns. During the reigns of Jacob I and Charles I , the palace was expanded to include the Queen's House above , which was started as the new summer residence of Queen Anna . The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War . For some time it served as a prisoner of war camp.

In 1664 Charles II wanted to have a new building built by John Webb instead of the old palace . The old palace was demolished for this purpose and on either side of an axis aligned with the Queen's House, the 74 hectare Greenwich Park was laid out according to a design by Le Notre in the 1660s . Of the new royal palace, however, only the east wing of the current King Charles Block was built until 1669 , before construction was stopped due to lack of money. Only under Wilhelm III. The Greenwich Hospital for old and wounded sailors was built on the site from 1694 instead of the palace according to plans by Christopher Wren .

literature

• Ingrid Nowel: London. Biography of a cosmopolitan city. Architecture and art, history and literature (= DuMont art travel guide ). 4th updated edition. DuMont, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-4382-5 , p. 132 ff.

Web links

• UNESCO World Heritage Center: Maritime Greenwich
• History of Greenwich

Individual evidence

1. ^ RIBA architecture.com from the Royal Institute of British Architects: John Webb. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 15, 2011 ; Retrieved January 9, 2012 . 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.  

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 56 ″  N , 0 ° 0 ′ 24 ″  W.