Pair of Lions - Castle gate, Cardiff, Wales.
N 51° 28.877 W 003° 10.929
30U E 487351 N 5703363
Two different lions statues are part of the original 9 animal sculptures on The Animal Wall, built in front of Cardiff Castle. Designed by William Burges in 1866, Now located on the perimeter wall of Bute park, adjacent to Cardiff Castle
Waymark Code: WME7P3
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/15/2012
Views: 10
These two different lions with sheilds, and a lioness are three lions out of the nine original sculptures, erected in 1890. Six new animal sculptures were added at a later date,(1931) making a total of 15 different animal sculptures on what is now known as 'The Animal Wall'. These left & right lions used to be guarding the main front castle entrance, before it was moved in the 1920s to where they now stand at the side entrance of the Castle & Bute park.
"The Animal Wall was designed by William Burges in 1866, but it was not built until 1890, after Burges's death in 1881. The work of the restoration of Cardiff Castle and the building of the Animal Wall for the Marquess of Bute, was continued by his former assistant William Frame. The original nine animal figures were sculptured by Thomas Nicholls, they were the hyena, wolf, apes, seal, bear, lioness, lynx, and 2 different lions. They were painted in naturalistic colours, although since then the paint work on the sculptures has been removed.
Most of the wall was moved about over 800 feet from outside Cardiff Castle to its present location outside Bute Park in 1922, due to road widening in front of the castle in Duke Street and Castle Street (now the A4161)."
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