Added: 05/09/2006 |
Cardiff Castle - Wales's Leading Tourist Attraction!The Welsh capital has many interesting things to see, from antiquities to modern architecture buildings. If you're in Cardiff for only a short time, try to see the major sights. First of all try to visit the Wales' leading tourist attraction - Cardiff Castle. At first glance, Cardiff's city centre seems an unlikely place to find a castle. Cardiff is the usual city, busy, with tremendous traffic, shoppers searching for a good buy.
Government buildings are covered with glass and glisten in the sun. Among great variety of museums the National Museum of Wales offers presumably the most impressive exhibits of Welsh history and cultural development. However, in the middle of Cardiff you can see the best example of the Welsh history that is expressed in the form of a fine castle.
Some people consider it to be a recent construction and can't be taken seriously, but this statement is fallacious. In fact Cardiff Castle is an authentic castle. It is actually the combined work of more than one building period. Cardiff Castle is an unusual mixture of Roman fort, medieval castle and fanciful Victorian gothic mansion.
The Romans founded a fort on this site in the 1st century AD. The Romans constructed a 10- acre fort on the spot where the castle now rests. Towards the end of the third century the existing "castrum" was reconstructed in masonry. During the Norman invasion William the Conqueror chose Cardiff like an ideal centre for building its castle in the heart of Glamorgan. The construction started in the year 1081 with the elevation of an earthwork inside the ancient circle of the Roman walls, on which was erected a wooden "keep" added in the 12th century.
Having been constructed in an outstanding example of the classic motte and bailey fortification Cardiff Castle is indeed of Norman origin and considered to be founded by Normans. With the bulky walls and its surrounding water-filled moat, the marvelous keep gives the visitor a perfect image of the true Norman castle.
Further reinforcements were added by the De Clare family in the 13th and early 14th centuries. The keep gained a gatehouse and fore-buildings linked by a massive ward wall to a new tower in the south - the Black Tower.
In 1306, the castle passed to Britain's notorious Despenser family and remained their possession for almost 100 years. In the 1404, during the rebellion of the natives, Cardiff was set in fire and the castle underwent serious damages. However, the Despensers retained control of the castle until 1414. In the 1414 the castle's owners became the Beauchamps, another local influential family. They erected the residential area of the castle, the "palace", along the west curtain walls and the impressive Octagon Tower. As tutor to the infant king Henry VI, Richard Beauchamp traveled with his charge to France, and died there in 1445. Richard's daughter, Ann, inherited Cardiff Castle and her husband, Richard Neville, became its new lord.
The stronghold changed many owners until the 16th century, with the Welsh dynasty of the Tudor coming to power. Since then Cardiff Castle went directly under the crown control. In 1550, William Herbert, member of one of Britain's most powerful medieval families obtained control of Cardiff Castle, which he converted into a luxurious and well appointed house. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries the house was left empty and fell into disrepair.
In 1776, the last Herbert heir, Charlotte Jane, passed the estates to her husband John Stuart, soon to become the Earl of Bute. 1st Marquess of Bute began a program of demolition and re-building that was continued by his grandson, the 2nd Marquess. The 2nd Marquess of Bute gained immense wealth through the exploitation of mineral resources on his Glamorgan estates and his development of Cardiff as a centre for industrial trade. The interior of the castle was altered as well as the near by ground. In fact the real rebirth of the Castle began with the whimsy of the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who assumed the title in 1848. Being one of the richest men in the world, and he lavished money on reconstruction of Cardiff Castle.
In 1869 the Gothic Revival architect William Burges began remodelling of Cardiff Castle. William Burges was given the freedom to design and build his most fanciful schemes. Today you can see the marvelous work of this architect in "The Palace". This huge hall is exaggerated in extravagance: the walls are rich in fantastic frescos with historical and mythological figures; the fireplaces are rich of sculptures. Reconstruction made by Burges is probably the best and the most remarkable architecture work ever created during the Victorian era.
Later, in 1947, the castle was given to the city of Cardiff by the Bute family. Cardiff City Council maintains the Castle site in outstanding condition. It is now a popular tourist attraction. Norman fortress is open to the public, for a fee, on most days. Visitors have an opportunity to visit both the spectacular interiors and the Castle grounds. The Castle Tea Rooms offers a warm welcome for coffees, light lunches and afternoon tea.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
