Established | 1982 |
---|---|
Location | The Mall, Waterford, Ireland |
Coordinates | 52°15′36″N7°06′24″W / 52.259996°N 7.106542°W |
Type | history museum |
Public transit access | The Mall bus stop (Bus Éireann routes 601, 603, 605) |
Nearest parking | Bolton Street |
Website | waterfordtreasures |
Waterford Treasures is a group of museums in and related to the city of Waterford in Ireland. It consists of four entities branded as museums (the Medieval Museum, Irish Silver Museum, Irish Museum of Time, Irish Wake Museum) and a historic building, the former Bishop's Palace, all located in adjacent, and another historic building, Reginald's Tower, which contains the Waterford Viking Museum. All these are located in the Viking Triangle. [1] The collections includes the 14th Century Waterford Charter Roll. Associated with Waterford Treasures are a cafe, and the Epic Walking Tour and the King of the Vikings Virtual Reality Adventure.
The Medieval Museum includes two medieval chambers, the 13th century Choristers’ Hall and the 15th century Mayor's Wine Vault. It also contains the only surviving piece of clothing worn by Henry VIII, a cap of maintenance. This was awarded to the Mayor of Waterford, along with a bearing sword, in 1536.
The Irish Museum of Time, a museum of clocks, opened on 14 June 2021. [2]
The Irish Silver Museum opened on 24 June 2021. [3]
The Irish Wake Museum, a museum focusing on the death and wake, opened on 15 June 2023. [4]
The Bishop's Palace is a 250-year-old Georgian structure and contains artifacts dating from 17th century Waterford to the present day. The Anglo-German architect Richard Cassels initially designed the Bishop's Palace, which was constructed in 1741. [5] However, construction was completed by the architect John Roberts. [5] The museum was originally the residence of the Church of Ireland Bishop of Waterford. [6]
The museum tells the story of Waterford from 1700 to the 1970s and contains the only surviving Bonaparte 'mourning cross' which was one of 12 produced upon Napoleon Bonaparte's death in 1821. [7]
The oldest surviving piece of Waterford Crystal, a Penrose decanter, is also on exhibition which dates back to 1789. [8]
The top floor of the building is dedicated to stories specific to Waterford's history, such as Ballybricken's pig markets, Waterford's Home Rule story, some exhibits on Waterford during the First World War, the War of Independence in Waterford, childhood and household living in Waterford. [9]
Reginald's Tower is the oldest building in civic use in Ireland and is said to date from 1003 A.D. The Viking Museum contains a volume of artifacts. [10]
Waterford Treasures runs the King of the Vikings Virtual Reality Adventure at the French Church. [11] It also provides the Epic Walking Tour, a guided walk around the Viking Triangle. [12] There is also a cafe.[ citation needed ]
Waterford Treasures has received several awards, [13] including a nomination in the international category of the 2013 "Museums and Heritage Awards". [14]
Waterford is a city in County Waterford in the south-east of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford Harbour. It is the oldest and the fifth most populous city in the Republic of Ireland. It is the ninth most populous settlement on the island of Ireland. As of the 2022 census, 60,079 people lived in the city and its suburbs.
Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of lead glass or "crystal", especially in cut glass, named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was closed due to the insolvency of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, and in June 2010, Waterford Crystal relocated almost back to the roots of glass-making in the city centre. The Mall location holds both a manufacturing facility that melts over 750 tonnes of crystal a year – although most Waterford Crystal is now produced outside Ireland – and a visitor centre with the world's largest collection of Waterford Crystal. As of 2015, the brand is owned by the Fiskars Corporation.
Lismore is a historic town in County Waterford, in the province of Munster, Ireland. Originally associated with Saint Mochuda of Lismore, who founded Lismore Abbey in the 7th century, the town developed around the medieval Lismore Castle. As of the 21st century, Lismore supports a rural catchment area, and was designated as a "district service centre" in Waterford County Council's 2011–2017 development plan. As of 2022, the town had a population of 1,347 people.
Ardmore is a seaside resort and fishing village in County Waterford, Ireland, not far from Youghal on the south coast of Ireland. The village is in a civil parish of the same name. As of the 2022 census, the village had a population of 468. Ardmore is believed to be the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland. According to tradition, Saint Declan lived in the region in the early 5th century, and Christianised the area before the coming of Saint Patrick.
Auckland Castle, also known as Auckland Palace, is a former bishop's palace located in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. The castle was a residence of the bishops of Durham from approximately 1183 and was their primary residence between 1832 and 2012, when the castle and its contents were sold to the Auckland Castle Trust. It is now a tourist attraction, but still houses the bishop's offices.
Waterford city is situated in south eastern Ireland, on the river Suir [pronounced Shure] about seventeen miles (27 km) from where the river enters the sea.
The Durham University Library is the centrally administered library of Durham University in England and is part of the university's Library and Collections department. Its two main libraries are Palace Green Library and the Bill Bryson Library. It was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green by a 160 volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert, and now holds over 1.6 million printed items. Since 1937, the university library has incorporated the historic Cosin's Library, founded by Bishop Cosin in 1669. Cosin's Library and the Sudan Archive held at Palace Green Library are designated collections under Arts Council England's Designation Scheme for collections of national and international significance; two collections at Durham University Oriental Museum, the Chinese collection and the Egyptian collection, are also designated.
The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th-century Viking hoard of 617 silver coins and 65 other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The hoard was the largest Viking one discovered in Britain since 1840, when the Cuerdale hoard was found in Lancashire, though the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, is larger.
The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It was opened in 1830, and has five permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology, numismatics and astronomy.
Farnham Castle is a 12th-century castle in Farnham, Surrey, England. It was formerly the residence of the Bishops of Winchester.
Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, or more formally, the Cathedral of The Holy Trinity, Christ Church, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Waterford City, Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Waterford, it is now one of six cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cashel and Ossory.
The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland located on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland, that specialises in Irish and other antiquities dating from the Stone Age to the Late Middle Ages.
Reginald's Tower is a historic tower in Waterford, Munster, Ireland. It is located at the eastern end of the city quay. The tower has been in usage for different purposes for many centuries and is an important landmark in Waterford and an important remnant of its medieval urban defence system. It is the oldest civic building in Ireland and it is the only urban monument in Ireland to retain a Norse or Viking name.
The Galloway Hoard, currently held in the National Museum of Scotland, is a hoard of more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone, and earthen objects from the Viking Age, discovered in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, in September 2014. Found on Church of Scotland land, the hoard has been described by experts as "one of the most significant Viking hoards ever found in Scotland". With years of extensive study and research, scholars are still not certain who buried the hoard, why they did so and whether they were Vikings or Anglo-Saxons. During the Viking Age, Galloway found itself squeezed between two Viking kingdoms and essentially cut off from other Anglo-Saxons in Britain – "Galloway is where these different cultures were meeting. It's not just Scandinavians, but people from Britain and Ireland as well."
The Waterford Viking Triangle is part of the cultural and heritage area in Waterford City. It is so called because of the 1000-year-old Viking walls which once surrounded it. The sites within the "triangle" include Reginald's Tower as well as the Medieval Museum and the Bishop's Palace Museum, collectively known as Waterford Museum of Treasures.
The Clonmacnoise Crozier is a late-11th-century Insular crozier that would have been used as a ceremonial staff for bishops and mitred abbots. Its origins and medieval provenance are unknown. It was likely discovered in the late 18th or early 19th century in the monastery of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly, Ireland. The crozier has two main parts: a long shaft and a curved crook. Its style reflects elements of Viking art, especially the snake-like animals in figure-of-eight patterns running on the sides of the body of the crook, and the ribbon of dog-like animals in openwork that form the crest at its top. Apart from a shortening to the staff length and the loss of some inserted gems, it is largely intact and is one of the best-preserved surviving pieces of Insular metalwork.
The Lismore Crozier is an Irish Insular-type crozier dated to between 1100 and 1113 AD. It consists of a wooden tubular staff lined with copper-alloy plates; embellished with silver, gold, niello and glass; and capped by a crook with a decorative openwork crest. The inscriptions on the upper knope record that it was built by "Nechtain the craftsman" and commissioned by Niall mac Meic Aeducain, bishop of Lismore. This makes it the only extant insular crozier to be inscribed, and the only one whose date of origin can be closely approximated. It was rediscovered in 1814, along with the 15th-century Book of Lismore, in a walled-up doorway in Lismore Castle, County Waterford, where it was probably hidden in the late Middle Ages during a period of either religious persecution or raids.
The Irish Museum of Time is a horological museum in Waterford, the Republic of Ireland. It is situated in the Waterford Viking Triangle, an area with various historical sites and museums. It opened on 14 June 2021 and owns about 600 timepieces. It is a part of the Waterford Treasures, along with five other museums.