Urbs Intacta Manet Waterfordia

Waterford's Medieval Museum was fantastic! We left the reception area and climbed down a 13th century spiral staircase to two preserved medieval chambers. The Choristers' Hall, built around 1270, was a residence for the dean of the cathedral.

The other chamber is a wine vault, built in 1440 by Peter Rice, one of Waterford's mayors. (His son, James, served as mayor of the city 11 times! He's the one who built the cadaver tomb we saw yesterday at the cathedral.) People didn't drink water, as the city wells were often contaminated. Wine was the popular drink for young and old, and Waterford was known as the wine capital of Ireland in the Middle Ages.

One of the cool treasures we saw was the four-metre-long charter roll. It was made in 1373, and was designed as part of a presentation by Waterford City Council to King Edward III. It was meant to convince the king to make Waterford the premier port in the region and guarantee its wine monopoly.

We also saw Henry VIII's cap, which was a gift to the mayor in 1536. It's made of red velvet from Italy, and is the only piece of Henry VIII's wardrobe to survive anywhere in the world.

It was Henry VIII's father Henry VII who gave Waterford its motto Urbs Intact Manet Waterfordia (Waterford remains the untaken city).

We also saw The Great Parchment Book of Waterford -- a manuscript containing records of the city from 1356 to 1649. Amazing.

But the most amazing display was the Waterford cloth-of-gold vestments -- the only full set of medieval vestments to survive in Northern Europe. They were made of Italian silk from Florence, and the decorated panels were embroidered in Bruges, working with designs prepared by artists of the calibre of Jan Van Eyck and Hans Memling.

They figure that our friend James Rice likely paid for them, as one of the wealthy patrons of the church. They survived because they were hidden in a chest buried under the cathedral floor in 1650 before the city fell to Oliver Cromwell. They stayed there for 123 years and were discovered after the wars of religion.

Ha! You can see by the length of this blog post that we were fascinated by all this. And these are just the highlights — there was so much to see and learn there. You can read about all the treasures, and even take a virtual tour of the museum here.

After, we drove to Hook Head Lighthouse, the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. The current structure has stood for almost 800 years. The first custodians of the light were a small group of monks whose monastery was situated on the peninsula. They would have lit warning fires to warn sailors of the dangerous rocks on the peninsula.

The monks were replaced by the first lighthouse keepers in the mid 17th century. In 1671, a new coal-burning lantern was installed. In 1791, the coal fire was abandoned when a whale oil lantern was installed. Gas lights came in 1871, and paraffin oil became the source of power in 1911, along with a clockwork mechanism to change the light from fixed to flashing. Electricity came in 1972, and in March of 1996, the Hook Lighthouse was automated.

From there, we drove to Kinsale, a picturesque seaside town. We had a grand dinner at the White Lady pub. The owner was as welcoming as a proprietor could possibly be. The place was packed, and he knew everyone. The food was great, and the chap talked us into a huge ice-cream-filled crepe that would have easily served three. There was some misunderstanding about sharing it -- Fred thought I didn't offer, and I thought he didn't want to sully the taste of the lovely whisky he ordered. The result was that I came very close to having broken the Fred Dawkins Law: "Never eat anything bigger than your head."

As we were getting ready to leave, three large jolly fellows from Philadelphia sat down with us, and we had some laughs and animated conversation with them. What a nice experience, and a great way to end the day. We'll explore the town tomorrow, then continue to our next stop!