Windsor Castle |
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Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English
county of Berkshire. It is notable for its long association with the
English and later British royal family and for its architecture.
The original castle was built in the 11th century after the
Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Since the time of
Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the
longest-occupied palace in Europe. The castle's lavish early
19th-century State Apartments were described by the art historian Hugh
Roberts as "a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded
as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian
taste". Inside the castle walls is the 15th-century St George's
Chapel, considered by the historian John Martin Robinson to be "one of
the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic" design.
Photo 10, 1979
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Windsor Castle
Originally designed to protect Norman dominance around the
outskirts of London and oversee a strategically important part of the
River Thames, Windsor Castle was built as a motte-and-bailey, with
three wards surrounding a central mound. Gradually replaced with stone
fortifications, the castle withstood a prolonged siege during the
First Barons' War at the start of the 13th century. Henry III built a
luxurious royal palace within the castle during the middle of the
century, and Edward III went further, rebuilding the palace to make an
even grander set of buildings in what would become "the most expensive
secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England".
Edward's core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which
Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a
royal court and centre for diplomatic entertainment.
Photo 11, 1979
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Windsor Castle
Photo 12, 1979
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Windsor Castle
Photo 15, 1979
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