Heritage – photo challenge: Caernarfon Castle

This week’s photo challenge of the Daily Post is about ‘heritage’, which stands for something that belongs to the culture of a specific society, such as buildings, languages or traditions that originated in the past but still have historical importance.

Travelling to different countries, I was able to visit many historical places, that offer loads of heritage. Especially the old and resilient castles in the UK reminded me of those cultural important and historic places. A very impressive castle I visited was the Caernarfon Castle in Wales.

 

The castle is an in Gwynned located medieval fortress that was created by King Edward I and is one of the most impressive castles in Wales. Worthy of World Heritage status no less, especially as it is one of the UNESCO World Heritage. Picking a fight with the massive structure of such a muscle-bound and intimidating appearance would have been a daunting prospect. The massive castle wall and huge towers created a very safe place. Unlike other castles that are happy with usual round towers, Caernarfon needed polygonal towers of which the Eagle Tower was the most impressive one. In addition, the actual site wasn’t chosen by accident. In earlier times, a Roman fort stood nearby and it has been the location of a Norman motte and bailey castle. Furthermore, the easy access to the sea made the banks of the River Seiont an ideal spot for Edward’s new castle. In order to tighten his grip further on the native population, the birth of his son and the first English Prince of Wales in the castle in 1284 was a perfect device to stamp his supremacy. The place of Edwards son was taken by Prince Charles in 1969, who is the current Prince of Wales.

 

With all that knowledge, it is an amazing feeling standing on such ancient ground that is also highly important for the Great British history. It was a special time visiting the resilient castle, imagining how the people of the earlier times might have lived there!