IRELAND’S OLDEST CITY – WATERFORD
Celebrates its 1100th Anniversary
Only a few casual wrinkles and she doesn’t look a day over a millennium. Waterford celebrates one thousand one hundred years in 2014. Situated on Ireland’s southern coast where the Atlantic meets the Irish Sea, the city was founded by the maurading Vikings in 914. The city’s name comes from Old Norse “Veðrafjrðr”, meaning ‘ram fjord’, reached through a long narrow inlet to a protected harbor. The year of events planned for the anniversary celebrations follow the completion of the city’s historic district dubbed the Viking Triangle. The original historic area of the medieval city, surrounded by the fortification walls from the 19th Century, encompasses a collection of buildings covering 1,100 years of Irish urban life history, with examples representing nearly every period of architecture to have come to Waterford since the arrival of the Norse invaders.
The triangle is home to three world-class museums of treasures – the Bishop's Palace, the Medieval Museum and Reginald's Tower (see Reginald's Viking Treasures). All year long the Medieval Museum will offer discussions on different aspects of Waterford’s long rich history (see Waterford Treasures Museum). In March the annual event commemorating the first unveiling of the Irish Tricolour Flag (green, orange and white) in the city in 1848 is held, along with Waterford’s own version of the St Patrick’s Day parade.
But if too much history is stodgy, March also offers a festival of contemporary music and a writers’ weekend with Viking themed workshops. In April, the city features its cultural links with France in the ‘Let’s French Again” festival, which invites people to sample French music, cuisine, cinema, literature and wine…and more wine. Opera fans can appreciate a new Irish opera, “The Invader”, which will have its premiere in May at the Theatre Royal. Local kids and visitor tykes can join in a variety of children friendly events during the year including taking a hand in building Viking longboat, at half scale.
Waterford is known not only for its history and heritage but also for its lively festival scene which each year includes the Waterford International Music Festival, the first two weeks in May and the Spraoi Street Theatre Festival, held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. And while exploring the city’s ancient past, visiting the Waterford Crystal works (see Waterford Crystal Factory Tour) is a natural. © Bargain Travel Europe
Find best hotel and travel deals in Waterford on TripAdvisor
Web
Info
Ireland
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
SEE ALSO
TANNERY COOKERY SCHOOL & TOWNHOUSE
MOBY DICK’S PUB - YOUGHAL - CORK
