In the Monmouthshire countryside, the majestic ruins of Raglan Castle still raise their great hexagonal tower ringed by a moat. Built at the end of the Middle Ages and sumptuously embellished under the Tudors, Raglan is the last great castle of display in Wales: at once fortress, palace and manifesto of power. ## A fortress turned palace Raglan was built in the fifteenth century by rich lords, among them William Herbert, in a style on the hinge of the fortress and the pleasure house. Its centrepiece is the Great Tower, a hexagonal keep isolated by its own moat, a symbol of power as much as a defensive work. Passing to the Somersets, Earls and then Marquesses of Worcester, the castle was, throughout the sixteenth century, transformed into a sumptuous house: long galleries, richly adorned apartments, a timber-roofed great hall, fountains and gardens. Raglan became one of the most magnificent aristocratic residences in Britain, where guests were received with princely splendour. ## The twilight of a world Raglan illustrates the moment when the medieval castle becomes a Renaissance house without giving up its warlike splendour. The Somersets, one of the great Welsh families integrated into the high nobility of the kingdom, displayed here a brilliant court, a renowned library, Italian-style gardens. The castle knew its height at the end of the sixteenth and the start of the seventeenth century. Its fate turned later, during the English Civil War (1640s): besieged and taken, Raglan was deliberately dismantled, its Great Tower mined and thrown down. Of its glory only superb ruins remain — the memory of the last great sumptuous castle of Wales. ## What to see - The hexagonal Great Tower ringed by its moat. - The great hall, the galleries and the ruined state apartments. - The remains of the Renaissance gardens and fountains. - The ensemble, witness of the passage from fortress to house of splendour. ## Did you know? The Great Tower of Raglan resisted so well during the Civil War siege that, to prevent it serving again, the victors set about demolishing it methodically — a work so difficult that it took weeks to overcome its thick walls. The hexagonal tower, symbol of the Somersets' power, owed its ruin to its own solidity: too strong to be left standing, it was thrown down stone by stone. What is admired today is only the skeleton of a colossus. ## Practical information Raglan Castle lies near Monmouth, in Monmouthshire, in the south-east of Wales. It is today a site in the care of Cadw (the Welsh heritage service), open to the public. ## Quiz 1. What is the centrepiece of Raglan Castle? - The hexagonal Great Tower, ringed by a moat - A gilded dome - A cathedral 2. Which family sumptuously embellished Raglan in the sixteenth century? - The Somersets (Earls of Worcester) - The Cecils - The Boleyns 3. How was Raglan ruined? - Dismantled after a Civil War siege - Destroyed by a fire - Swept away by a flood ---
