Warwick

52.282222222222 -1.5852777777778Coordinates: 52 ° 17 ′ N , 1 ° 35 ′ W

Warwick

United Kingdom

Warwick Castle

St. Mary's Church

The eastern gatehouse, together with the western gatehouse one of the few remaining buildings from medieval times

Mill Street in Warwick with Tudor- era houses, one of the few streets that was not destroyed in the 1694 fire

Warwick [ ˈwɒɹɪk ] is a town in the English county of Warwickshire on the River Avon and has 31,345 inhabitants (as of 2011). It belongs to the District of Warwick .

Due to the well-preserved castle in the city, Warwick Castle , and the historic buildings in the city center (a mixture of Tudor and buildings from the 17th century), the city is visited by a large number of tourists.

However, the University of Warwick is not in Warwick, but on the outskirts of Coventry . The confusing naming can be explained by the fact that when the university was founded in the 1960s, an attempt was made to give the young university more prestige by means of a name associated with a long tradition in England.

history

The city was built in 914 by Ethelfleda , sister of the King of Mercia , Edward the Elder and daughter of Alfred the Great , as a defense against Danish invaders on the banks of the Avon River.

In 1016 the Danes attacked Mercia and burned much of the city. The nunnery that stood on the site of today's St. Nicolas Church was also burned down.

The fortifications built later made Warwick an important center of the then Kingdom of Mercia. In the early 11th century, Anglo-Saxon England was divided into administrative districts, the so-called "Shires". The Shire, which was administered from Warwick, was named Warwickshire . At the time of the Domesday Book record, Warwick was royal property.

In the Middle Ages, Warwick was ruled by various Earls of Warwick , mostly from the Beauchamp family. The city walls were also built during this time. Nowadays, only the east and west gates can be seen. King's High School is housed in the east gate.

However, it was not until 1545 that Warwick received city rights.

In the course of the persecution of Catholics, the Catholic priest John Sugar and his helper Robert Grissold were executed here on July 16, 1604 . Both have been blessed of the Catholic Church since 1987 .

During the English Civil War , the city was occupied by parliamentary troops under the command of Sir Edward Peyton, who during this time survived a two-week siege by royalist troops. Records between 1644 and 1646 show a garrison of 350 soldiers under the command of Colonel Purefoy and Major John Bridges.

On September 7, 1694, the city was badly damaged by a great fire that did not affect only a small part of the buildings in the center of the city. For this reason, most of the buildings are only from the 17th and 18th centuries. The fire also destroyed large parts of St. Mary's Church . Only the pulpit and the Beauchamp Chapel (built 1443–1464) survived the fire.

In the chapel you can see the sarcophagus of Richard Beauchamp , Earl of Warwick, who died in Rouen in 1439. The sarcophagus is made of Purbeck marble from the Purbeck Hills and is covered with a life-size copper image of the Earl.

traffic

Warwick is close to the M40 and A46 motorways . The city has good rail links with direct connections to London, Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon . The Avon River and the Grand Union Canal , part of the Narrowboat Canal Network, flow through the city .

economy

The world's largest manufacturer of shopping trolleys , Wanzl , has been operating a service and sales branch in Warwick since 1980.

various

JRR Tolkien , who married in Warwick, is said to have been inspired by the place for his novel epic The Lord of the Rings . In an article in the Times literature supplement, Lynn Forest-Hill wrote on July 8, 2005 that two locations in Tolkien's novels were modeled on Warwick's. Edoras is described as the early city of Warwick, and Minas Tirith resembles the Norman fortification. There are also parallels between the Lord of the Rings and the novel Guy of Warwick .

Warwick is often used as a location for historical films and television plays such as the BBC series Dangerfield and the films Pride and Prejudice , Tom Jones and Moll Flanders .