The Red Dragon of Wales
My next adventure in Wales was at Castell Caerdydd, a.k.a. Cardiff Castle. The castle has an impressively long history. It started off in 55 CE as a Roman fort and trading post. In 1081 the Normans rebuilt it as a motte-and-bailey castle, first with a wooden keep, then a stone one. Around 1200, construction began on the curtain wall, and towers along the wall continued to be built through the 1450s. In 1776, the First Marquess of Bute started enlarging the outer towers and converting their interiors into more of a house. Construction continued through to the Third Marquess of Bute, who, in 1868 with her husband, William Burges, remodeled the interior to reflect a Gothic Victorian mansion. Work was finally completed in 1930.
The keep lies in the center-back of the grounds, and has long ago fallen into ruins. Even in its crumbled state, it's beautiful.
Here you can appreciate the "motte" part of motte-and-bailey.
A moat! The castle museum staff were very excited that Cardiff Castle still has a working moat; most castles' moats have dried up. The ducks were excited, too.
Inside the keep, looking at the interior side of the main entrance.
Same view. Less wall, more flag.
I climbed up the tower. Notice the right-twisting staircase.
View from the tower, looking at the other side of the interior of the keep and a bit of Cardiff in the background.
Better views of the exterior of the mansion.
It was hard to get good shots of the rooms in the mansion. They just didn't fit into the photo frame well. Instead, I concentrated on bits of the decor, to give you a feel for the place.
The entirety of the Gothic Victorian interior was designed with two themes in mind: the Bible and Time. Each room (well, most of them) is dedicated to a different book of the Bible: Genesis for the small family dining room, the Book of Kings for the roof garden, etc.
The last family used this house as a vacation home for four weeks in the summer and two in the winter. In the 1840s-1870s, they were one of the richest families in the world, and made their fortune off of coal (fitting, as Pwll Mawr/Big Pit is just outside of Cardiff).
The fireplace and ceiling in the gentlemen's smoking room, located in the clock tower. Sorry the fireplace is a little blurry.
I got a kick out of this. This devil's face is carved into the ceiling just outside of the smoking room, to frighten the ladies away.
The ceiling in the second gentlemen's smoking room. Because of course one smoking room isn't enough. Gorgeous, isn't it? Given the near-Eastern influences in the architecture, and having read my fair share of Victorian literature, I'm guessing this room was intended for smoking opium rather than cigars.
These photos are of the nursery. The figures wrapping around the walls are all storybook characters!
The large dining room. The floor plan has been in place since the 15th century. Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, and Elizabeth II have all dined here.
Close-up of one of the angels on the ceiling
The murals around the walls of the dining room depict different battles in which the mansion's owners had taken part. Nothing like violence and gore to stimulate the appetite.
The library!
One of the first indoor bathrooms, with what was considered a very advent-guard plumbing and flush system. This was also the first house in Wales to have electricity. The bathroom has 60 different types of marble in it.
The gentleman of the house's bedroom and dressing quarters. The theme of this room is Revelation. Just the kind of theme you need to sleep well at night. The original wardrobe was actually shaped like a confessional.
The roof garden. Each box was overflowing with greenery, and the water fountain/bird bath flowed into a pool.
The theme for the roof garden is the Book of Kings. Most of the mural scenes depict parts of the life of Elijah, and the scrolling text along each wall reads passages in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin--the three main languages of the Bible.
The top of the fireplace and the ceiling in the family dining room. The theme for this room is Genesis, with a particular emphasis on the Garden of Eden.
The hole in the center of the table was for a giant vase. Every day fresh branches laden with fruit were put in the vase, so the family could pick fresh fruit off the vine during mealtimes.
Another thing I got a kick out of. This monkey is just to the left of the fireplace. Though the forbidding of flash photography means you can't see it, the monkey is holding an acorn. Pull the monkey's nut, and it rings for the servants to come running.
The ladies' parlor, also called the drawing room. Drawing room is actually short for "withdrawing room," as it is the room to which the ladies would withdraw after dinner, leaving the men to their brandy snifters and talk of business and politics. Unlike the gentlemen's room, which ladies were forbidden to enter, the men could enter the ladies' parlor anytime they pleased.
The walls were purposely left in a bare, 18th-century Georgian design, rather than matching the heavy Gothic Revival in the rest of the house. This way, each new lady of the house could decorate it according to her personal tastes, allowing her to put her mark on the house without messing up the rest of it. I am so glad I live in the 21st century.
Some final shots of Cardiff city center, taken from the battlements of the keep:
In direct contrast to the castle, that saucer-shaped structure behind the clock tower is Millennium Stadium, currently under construction for the 2012 Summer Olympics. While London is technically hosting the Olympics, the city is so built-up that they've outsourced some of the larger stadiums to other major English (and Welsh) cities.
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