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Founded: 17th centuryCategory: Palaces, manors and town halls in Sweden
Historical period: Swedish Empire (Sweden)
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Esplunda estate was established in 1616. The current manor house was built in 1872 and it was enlarged to the Baroque-style appearance in 1904. Wings date from the 18th century. Esplunda has a very significant library with 15,000 books and manuscripts dating from the 1600-1700s.
References:Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.