Windsor Castle

Description of Windsor Castle

Known as Windsor Castle is a palace and royal residence located in Windsor, in the county of Berkshire, United Kingdom. It is notable for its ancient ties with the British Royal Family and for its architecture. Its origin of a medieval castle date back to the eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of England by William I the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I of England (12th century) it has been inhabited by numerous British monarchs, a fact that makes it the second oldest European royal residence after the Royal Alcázar of Seville. Some of its luxurious rooms, such as the "State Apartments", are architecturally very interesting and have been described by the historian Hugh Roberts as "a magnificent and unmatched sequence of rooms widely recognized as the best and most complete expression of Georgian style. The castle includes the Chapel of St. George, of the fifteenth century.

This fortification of the Windsor Castle was originally constructed on a hill and with three walls around a central mound to serve as a bulwark of the Norman conquerors on the outskirts of London and to dominate a strategically important area of ​​the River Thames. Its wooden defenses were gradually replaced by stone, and at the beginning of the thirteenth century it suffered a long siege during the First War of the Barons (1215-17). Henry III built a luxurious royal palace within the enclosure in the middle of that century and Edward III went further with the reconstruction of the palace, which created a larger set of buildings that would become the most expensive secular architectural project of the entire Middle Ages in England. The core of Edward's work survived until the Tudor period (16th century), when Henry VIII and Isabella I gave the castle a greater use as a royal court and center of diplomatic entertainment.

The complex survived the turbulent period of the English Civil War, when it was used as a military barracks by the parliamentary forces and as a prison for Charles I. During the Restoration of the Stuarts, Charles II rebuilt much of the castle with the help of architect Hugh May and created a series of extravagant baroque interiors that still cause admiration today. After a period of neglect in the eighteenth century, the kings George III and George IV renovated and rebuilt the palace of Charles II without paying any expense to produce the design of the current State Apartments, decorated in Rococo, Gothic and Baroque style. Queen Victoria made minor changes to the castle, which she used as a center of royal entertainment for much of her extensive reign in the nineteenth century. Windsor Castle also served as a refuge for the royal family during the intense bombings of World War II and survived a fire in 1992. Currently at Windsor Castle, more than 500 people live and work, it is a very tourist attraction. popular, home to state visits and weekend home preferred by Queen Elizabeth II of England.