Winchester Castle

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The knight's hall, which King Heinrich III. erected

Winchester Castle is a partially preserved medieval castle in Winchester in the English county of Hampshire . It was built in 1067. Only the great hall remains, which now houses a museum of the history of the city of Winchester.

Knight hall

In the years 1222-1235, King Heinrich III. , who was born at Winchester Castle, build a knight's hall to the castle, which has the shape of a double cube and the dimensions of approximately 33.5 meters × 16.8 meters × 16.8 meters. The building is made of flint and has stone facings. Originally it had lower walls and a dormer roof . These were later replaced by two-pane windows, replacing an early version of the tracery . King Edward II had the castle expanded. In 1873 the knight's hall received a completely new roof.

A rosette depicting Arthur's round table hangs on one of the front walls of the great hall. The rosette was made in the 13th century and King Henry VIII had it painted in the shape that has been preserved to this day. The names of the knights of King Arthur are attached to the edges of the rose window.

Behind the knight's hall is a restored, medieval garden called Queen Eleanor's Garden . A series of pictorial epigrams, illuminated in medieval-monastic style, also hang in the great hall and are called Winchester Panels . They show the 25 knights of the round table and show the tasks that a developing character faces when he moves around the great "wheel of life".

history

In 1141, during the anarchy , the forces of Empress Matilda were besieged by those of King Stephen in the castle.

In 1302, King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, narrowly escaped death when the royal apartments burned down.

On March 19, 1330 Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent , during the dispenser revolt against King Edward III. beheaded in front of the castle walls.

Margaret of York , the daughter of King Edward IV , was born here on April 10, 1472.

On November 17, 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh was brought to trial for high treason in the converted knight's hall because of his suspected involvement in the main plot .

The castle was used by the royalists during the English Civil War , but fell into the hands of the parliamentarians in 1646 . Oliver Cromwell then ordered the castle to be demolished.

In the 17th century, King Charles II planned the construction of the King's House next to the castle grounds and commissioned the architect Christopher Wren to plan a royal palace that was in no way inferior to the Palace of Versailles . The project was then abandoned by King James II for lack of money.

Another trial, which has been widely attention, was held on 15 March 1953 at the Knights' Hall: In the Winchester Assizes were Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu , Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wild Blood for performing homosexual acts accused and convicted.

The castle today

Since 1889, Winchester Castle has been the seat of Hampshire County Council , whose offices are adjacent to the Great Hall. Nearby you can see the excavated remains of the round tower with side gates and lavatory core in the medieval city ​​wall .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Winchester Castle . Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  2. ^ Forrester-Roberts
  3. ^ Lord Montagu on the court case which ended the legal persecution of homosexuals. In: Evening Standard , July 14, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  4. ^ John Bell Young: His lordship's wheel of fortune In: St. Petersburg Times , April 16, 2001. Retrieved November 13, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Winchester Great Hall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '44.7 "  N , 1 ° 19' 13.9"  W.