Brecon

Brecon ( Welsh: Aberhonddu ) is a historic market town in Mid Wales with about 8,000 inhabitants. More 6,000 inhabitants distributed among the surrounding villages belonging to the city.

Name

According to legend, the name of the Brecon Welsh Prince Brychan is to be derived.

Brecon is the English name, the Welsh name of the city is Aberhonddu, after the river Honddu, which flows near the city center in the River Usk.

Brecon, also known in the 19th century Brecknock, is the capital of the historic county of Brecknockshire.

History

Near the town there was indeed a Roman camp, but the present village was founded in the 12th century after the construction of a Norman castle and a monastery of the Benedictine Order. Before a bridge was built over the Usk, Brecon was one of the few cities where there was a ford across the river.

The confluence of the Usk with the Honddu offered a good strategic position for the Norman castle of Brecon Castle, which overlooks the city. The castle was built by Bernard de Neufmarché in the late 11th century. Now, at the same place, the Castle Hotel.

In the 17th century the inhabitants of the city dragged its fort and most of the city wall, to provide no target in the Civil War.

Not far from the castle stands Brecon Cathedral, which was built on the site of the former Benedictine monastery and which became the place of pilgrimage in the 15th century. From the Norman church is merely receive the baptismal font. After the dissolution of the monastery, it became the parish church before it was raised in 1923, the cathedral of the newly established Diocese of Swansea and Brecon the Anglican Church in Wales.

Economy and Transport

Tourism

Today Brecon is a tourist city, as it is directly on the southern edge of the town of Brecon Beacons National Park begins. From the city, you have a good view of the Brecon Beacons mountains, like the Pen-y- Fan, the highest mountain in the south of Britain with 886 m.

In August the annual Brecon Jazz Festival takes place in the city center, giving various musicians both open-air concerts in which, as also occur in the city hall and the new Brycheiniog Theatre.

  • Brecon Cathedral dates back to the years around 1100.
  • The castle today is the Castle Hotel is set up.
  • Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery home
  • Military and Regiment Museum
  • Christ College
  • Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

Parade ground

12 km west of the city is an important military training ground of the British Army, the Sennybridge Training Area.

Cattle market

Brecon has a small industrial area in which now takes place and the cattle market, which was previously held in the city center.

Traffic

The city is the educational center for the surrounding villages and farms, and it is not uncommon that students have more than an hour to take the bus to go to school in Brecon.

Brecon is moderate traffic at the meeting point of national roads A40 and A470.

A railway connection no longer exists in the city since the Brecon and Merthyr Railway no longer operates the line.

Twinning

Sons and daughters of the town

  • Thomas Coke (1747-1814), first bishop of the Methodist Church
  • Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), actress
  • Ernest Howard Griffiths (1851-1932), Physicist
  • Roger Glover ( born 1945 ), musician (Deep Purple)
  • Rachel Podger ( b. 1968 ), British violinist
Post town Preserved counties of Wales Afon Honddu (Powys) Order of Saint Benedict Pen y Fan Thomas Coke (bishop)
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