A legendary past
The history of Wales is a multi-millennia history that can be read through astonishing architectural witnesses. It all starts with the megalithic sites, most of which date from the Bronze Age. Menhirs - memorial or cult stones - are often located near burial mounds - artificial piles of earth or stone erected above a grave - and bear witness to highly elaborate funeral rites. Some of the most famous sites include those in Pembrokeshire and the Isle of Anglesey. In Pembrokeshire, don't miss the amazing site of Castell Henllys, literally the castle of the prince's court. Here, archaeology is being experimented with. On the site, you'll learn about life in the Iron Age through reconstructions of round houses, an attic, and prehistoric farmsteads sheltered by fortifications designed as earthworks with embankments and ditches. This re-creation of an authentic prehistoric fort is fascinating. Let's now join the Roman Wales. At the height of its splendour, imperial Rome wanted all the peoples under its rule to benefit from the famous "Roman Peace" and its powerful administrative organisation, and this must be reflected in the architecture. The provinces thus equipped themselves with functional constructions (military defence works, forts...) and buildings reminiscent of the key elements of the great Rome, themselves borrowed from the Greeks (amphitheatres, baths, temples). The town of Carmarthen, known to the Romans as Moridunum, the fort of the sea, houses the remains of an amphitheatre, a Romano-Celtic temple, a basilica (then a meeting and trading place), baths, a forum, as well as several dwellings. The other great site not to be missed is the Fortress of Caerleon (derived from the Welsh word Caer Legionis, the fortress of the legion). Its Roman name was Isca Silurum. It was built by the Romans to subdue the Welsh resistance. The site allows the visitor to appreciate the Roman genius with the remains of the castrum (a military camp rigorously organized around the general's tent, divided into two main routes and protected by an enclosure), the amphitheatre (an oval arena that can accommodate up to 6,000 people), but also baths, barracks and temples. A pragmatic and functional architecture at the service of the glory of the empire. Finally, don't miss Offa's Dyke or Wall of Offa (8th century), which now runs along the border between England and Wales. This great wall of earth, a masterpiece of engineering by the Saxon King Offa, was intended to protect Mercia from Welsh troops. The Offa's Dyke Path allows you to walk along it and discover this amazing page of Welsh history.Medieval Splendors
Wales has the highest concentration of castles in the world! Among its hundreds of castles, one stands out: Chepstow, one of the very first stone fortresses built by the Norman invader... a real novelty, since until the 11th century, castles were made of wood.
Derived from the Roman castrum, the fortified castle is built on a promontory, providing protection and surveillance, and consists of a fortified enclosure housing a keep and a camp. It is only from the Romanesque period onwards that castles went from being simple refuges to real dwellings with a surrounding wall surrounded by a moat and equipped with towers and drawbridges still housing the keep, but also a dwelling. Romanesque castles are also characterised by their arches and round towers, and herringbone decoration (a V-shaped decorative pattern used in large numbers to form zigzags.) You can see some magnificent ones all over the country, starting with Cardiff
. In the 11th century, the castle was just a castle mound, comprising a wooden fortification erected on a mound of earth, then in the 12th century, it was rebuilt in stone and a keep, the Norman Keep, was added, which is now the oldest part still standing. Another gem not to be missed is Caerphilly Castle, the largest in Wales and a real turning point in military architecture. Protected by an extremely sophisticated system of dams, moats and lakes, Caerphilly Castle is the first to follow a concentric plan consisting of two courtyards, a fortified inner courtyard integrated into a central courtyard. The walls of the inner courtyard dominate those of the central courtyard producing a concentric defence system consisting of two closed rings of fortifications. Its imposing tower guardhouses also help to reinforce this aspect of great power. This original plan will be widely used in the astonishing castles of the Iron Ring. Their construction is inseparable from that of the conquest of Wales by the English. Begun by Henry III and continued by his son Edward I, the Iron Belt is a powerful defensive system composed of many castles that father and son restored or built ex nihilo in order to control and pacify the region. In order to build this incredible defence system, Edward I hired the services of a mason from the continent, Master James de Saint-Georges, whom he named architect of the Crown. The master thus participated in the construction or renovation of 12 of the 17 castles in the belt. He developed a defensive architecture based on a concentric plan. Among the most beautiful castles of the Master of Saint-Georges, do not miss the castle of Conwy, the castle of Harlech, the castle of Beaumaris and of course the superb castle of Caernafon, a real city within the city with its superb walls of polychrome stones. All the castles of the Iron Belt are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Welsh Middle Ages were also religious, as the superb ruins of Cistercian abbeys dotting the country testify. Advocating a life of asceticism and poverty, the Cistercians imagined an architecture that would bear these values based on simple lines based on the relationship between elementary geometric forms whose juxtaposition creates balance. Rejecting all forms of superfluous decoration, they used light as a means of emphasizing volumes and animating spaces. Abandoned or destroyed in the 16th century, these religious masterpieces have come down to us from impressive ruins, starting with those of Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley. The ruins of the abbey church reveal its incredible proportions (80 m long and 25 m wide). They are now undergoing extensive restoration work. Don't miss Strata Florida Abbey, where fragments of the beautiful west portal still remain, or Whitland Abbey. Alongside these religious centres, many cathedrals have also been added to the Welsh landscape. Don't miss Bangor Cathedral, with its cruciform plan and 40-metre nave, a treasure trove of Romanesque architecture, or the astonishing St David's Cathedral, the largest and oldest in the country, whose grey and pink-coloured stone is still admired today for the play of light. Finally, don't miss Brecon's cathedral and its incredible torches: holes dug in the stone and then filled with oil to light up the whole building, even the darkest corners. Ingenious and poetic.Industrial prosperity
Industrial architecture is one of Wales' other treasures. From the end of the 18th century, the region has been endowed with impressive works of art that bear witness to an astonishing evolution of techniques and know-how. The Cysyllte Aqueduct is one of the finest examples. Designed by Thomas Telford in 1795, 300 m long, made of cast iron and supported by a series of 19 masonry piers, it allows a canal to pass over the River Dee. Behind the parapet, a towpath was used to pull boats up the canal. In 1801, Telford also built a suspension bridge. As the country entered this period of great economic and demographic growth, it also transformed its approach to architecture, which itself became an activity of capitalism. New processes and materials were used to create innovative and functional architecture. This was particularly significant during the reign of Queen Victoria. Landscapes were transformed and saw an increase in the number of forges, workshops, factories and above all blast furnaces, a modern pyramid inseparable from the mining and iron and steel industries. Workers were also entitled to housing specifically designed for them, whether it was rows of terraced houses, as in the mining towns, or small thatched cottages in the first attempts at a garden city, where these modern cottages were never far from a green space, thus removing the town/country boundary. In the city, shopping galleries or arcades multiply with their elegant metal decoration and high glass ceilings transforming dark shopping streets into real skylights, like the Morgan Arcade in Cardiff. Modernity and hygiene were the new driving forces of the time. But Victorian architecture also has another face: that of historicizing eclecticism, a kind of romanticism inspired by the national heritage, which takes up past references and mixes them up in a sometimes somewhat outrageous way. We are interested in Norman, Romanesque, Gothic and we use red brick extensively. One of the great architects of this period is William Burges. As an architect, Burges is also a craftsman and masters metalwork, sculpture and furniture, which allows him to offer total works of art, so to speak. His style is very much inspired by medieval codes, especially the French Gothic, adding influences from India or Japan. His restoration of Cardiff Castle and his unleashing of polychrome medievalism are a good example of this. The Victorian period also saw the revival of Jacobin and Tudor (the great styles of the English Renaissance) in imposing residences, such as The Hendre manor house, with its seven faces of red brick and Bath stone, its slate roof, its mullioned or stained glass windows, its bow windows and decorative gargoyles. Like England, Wales has many educational buildings such as the library and the National Museum in Cardiff. This Victorian style, between tradition and modernity, is succeeded by the Edwardian style and its excessive sense of scale and detail, which is used for public architecture, as can be seen in Cathays Park or Cardiff Civic Centre with its superb white marble town hall or its courthouse, between Baroque flamboyance and Renaissance sobriety.