Cornwall St Mawes Castle.

🏰 St Mawes Castle: A Tudor Masterpiece in Cornwall

St Mawes Castle is one of the best-preserved and most elaborately decorated coastal artillery forts built by Henry VIII between 1540 and 1542. It was constructed as part of the King's "Device" programme to defend England from invasion by Catholic France and the Holy Roman Empire, guarding the entrance to the strategic Carrick Roads and Fal Estuary in partnership with its sister fortress, Pendennis Castle, located directly across the water. Designed in a distinctive clover-leaf shape with a central four-storey tower and three circular bastions, its purpose was to provide overlapping fields of fire for heavy artillery to sink enemy ships. While primarily a defensive structure, St Mawes is unique for its extensive Tudor ornamentation, featuring carved inscriptions lauding King Henry VIII, along with decorative gargoyles and sea monsters, making it a rare example of Renaissance military architecture in England. The castle was held by Royalists during the English Civil War but surrendered to Parliamentary forces in 1646 and continued in military use until the mid-20th century