Caernarfon

Caernarfon is the most famous and perhaps the most beautiful castle in Wales, which is just what its builder, King Edward I, intended. The castle and town of Caernarfon were constructed as a part of Edward's bid to encompass the kingdom of Gwynedd (North Wales) within a chain of fortifications. The town was originally intended to be the seat of English government in Wales. But Edward was not the first to found a settlement here: the Celtic tribes were long established in the area when the Romans arrived. Whilst no trace of them remain in the town, there are a number of their ruined villages in the district. The Romans constructed a fort here called Segontium after the river, which is now called Seiont. Ruins of the fort still remain on site.

Caernarfon lay on the traditional route to and from Ireland, via the Menai Strait and Anglesey, a route still taken today. When the Romans withdrew at the end of the 4th century, the local tribe formed into the kingdom of Gwynedd and in this time history and legends are inextricably interlined in the saga of Mabinogion that describe the magnificence of Segontium, using it as a backdrop for the heroic actions of historic characters.

With the Norman conquest we pass from obscurity to relatively well recorded fact. By 1073 a castle had been built at Caernarfon by Robert, a relative of Hugh of Avranches, the first Norman Earl of Chester. This was of the motte-and-bailey type, but unusually, the Norman occupation of the area did not last for long, because by 1115 the Welsh, as they were called by the English, had regained the area, reoccupying the motte and settling a civilian population there. The Welsh Prince Llywelyn the Great lived here at periods during his lifetime (1173-1240). But the power of the indigenous princes collapsed in 1283.

In December 1282 the English army killed Llywelyn ap Gruffud, Prince of Wales. Around 14th March 1283 King Edward I arrived in Conwy, where construction of the castle began immediately. Within several months, building also began in Caernarfon and Harlech. At Caernarfon some of the building materials come from the Roman fort of Segontium, whilst other material was shipped by boat.  The architecture of Constantinople had probably inspired Edward when he was fighting there in the Crusades and the castle's grand style also underlines his imperial intentions. The walls and rectangular towers of the castle contrast with the lower town walls, which have round towers.

Immensely strong as well as beautiful, this crowning glory of medieval fortress-building took nearly fifty years  to construct, and proved the costliest of Edward's castles. Following the master plan of James of St.George, craftsmen were summoned from all over England to work on the castle and Caernarfon's magnificent, still unbroken town walls.  The castle's 'Eagle Tower' was the birthplace in 1284 of a new English prince, the ill-fated Edward II. Legends says it was here that Edward I showed his baby son to the Welsh as "the native-born prince who could speak no English". In fact, Caernarfon is the nearest building Wales has to a royal palace having been owned continuously by the Crown ever since Edward I established it in 1283. Of course, the native Welsh had been banned from the town and forced to live outside the walls. The works at the castle ended in 1330.

With Henry Tudor's, whose family came from Anglesey, accession to the English throne in 1485 attitudes to the Welsh changed radically, mainly because many of his courtiers were Welsh gentry. Consequently the need for expensive castles in Wales was less critical. Thus, from the 16th century onwards these fortifications became more and more neglected.

During the Civil war, having been garrisoned for the King, Caernarfon was besieged three times, but escape any great damage. The castle earned itself a place in modern history on 1 July 1969 when it was the setting for the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. Caernarfon was also the scene for the investiture of Prince Edward in 1911.

The castle has much to interest the visitors: the King's Gate has been described as the mightiest in the land an the Eagle Tower as the finest decorated medieval fortification. Caernarfon is also inscribed on the World Heritage List as a site of outstanding universal value and is now in the care of CADW.