National Monument of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The National Monument of Scotland, on Calton Hill, is Scotland's national memorial to the Scottish soldiers and sailors who died fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. It was intended, according to the inscription, to be 'A Memorial of the Past and Incentive to the Future Heroism of the Men of Scotland'.

The monument dominates the top of Calton Hill, just to the east of Princes Street. It was designed during 1823-6 by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair and is modelled upon the Parthenon in Athens. Construction started in 1826 and, due to the lack of funds, was left unfinished in 1829. Subsequent attempts to 'complete' the National Monument have never borne fruit for reasons of either cost or lack of local enthusiasm.

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Statues in United Kingdom

User Reviews

Artbees (3 years ago)
Edinburgh Creative Network is a Scotland based marketing agency which provides intelligent, cost-effective bespoke software development solutions that are carefully built to the specific requirements of medium and large sized businesses.

Scott (3 years ago)
Excellent colleagues!!! Loved Edinburgh Creative Network working for such a wonderful company with comfortable environment and open for productive ideas. Diversity with the workplace was always a plus...

Alan Owen (3 years ago)
Not great! They forgot one person's food order, another person's egg was missing from a bacon and egg roll, beans and eggs were cold on the breakfasts and drinks arrived (with prompting) after some of us had finished eating. Drinks were nice but overall service was poor.

Andy Hitchings (3 years ago)
One of my favourite parts of Edinburgh - this is a must visit for anyone visiting the city. This is filled with cool, quirky and historic pubs and some really delicious food restaurants and bakery's. It has a real atmosphere to the place too.

Freya S (3 years ago)
A very busy place, think I would book next time, although we did not wait too long for a table. I love the breakfasts here and i must have been over 10 times now. The eggs with the add ons are the best part of the menu.

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German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of the Cēsis castle (Wenden) near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master from 1237 till 1561, with periodic interruptions. Its ruins are some of the most majestic castle ruins in the Baltic states. Once the most important castle of the Livonian Order, it was the official residence for the masters of the order.

In 1577, during the Livonian War, the garrison destroyed the castle to prevent it from falling into the control of Ivan the Terrible, who was decisively defeated in the Battle of Wenden (1578).

In 1598 it was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Wenden Voivodship was created here. In 1620 Wenden was conquered by Sweden. It was rebuilt afterwards, but was destroyed again in 1703 during the Great Northern War by the Russian army and left in a ruined state. Already from the end of the 16th century, the premises of the Order's castle were adjusted to the requirements of the Cēsis Castle estate. When in 1777 the Cēsis Castle estate was obtained by Count Carl Sievers, he had his new residence house built on the site of the eastern block of the castle, joining its end wall with the fortification tower.

Since 1949, the Cēsis History Museum has been located in this New Castle of the Cēsis Castle estate. The front yard of the New Castle is enclosed by a granary and a stable-coach house, which now houses the Exhibition Hall of the Museum. Beside the granary there is the oldest brewery in Latvia, Cēsu alus darītava, which was built in 1878 during the later Count Sievers' time, but its origins date back to the period of the Livonian Order. Further on, the Cēsis Castle park is situated, which was laid out in 1812. The park has the romantic characteristic of that time, with its winding footpaths, exotic plants, and the waters of the pond reflecting the castle's ruins. Nowadays also one of the towers is open for tourists.

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