Pontefract Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Pontefract Castle occupy a rocky spur east of the town, in the Wakefield district (West Yorkshire). Founded by the Normans on the site of Tanshelf, an Anglo-Saxon royal borough whose Christian cemetery lies beneath the bailey, it became one of the most powerful fortresses in northern England. Held successively by the Lacys and then by the earls and dukes of Lancaster, the castle passed to the Crown in 1399 with the accession of Henry IV. The deposed Richard II is said to have been imprisoned and to have died there in 1400. A Royalist stronghold during the Civil War, it endured three long sieges before surrendering in 1649, and was then methodically demolished. Still owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, the site is managed by Wakefield Council. A visitor centre opened in 2017 at the end of the "Key to the North" project, together with access to the underground cellars, helps visitors read the remains of the trefoil-shaped keep, the towers and the curtain walls.