Gwydir Chapel

Gwydir Chapel is near Gwydir Castle,
just outside Llanrwst, north Wales.
It was once a place of worship for the Wynn family,
who owned and lived in the castle,
but is now in the care of Cadw
(the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service).

It has a plain and simple exterior,
which gives no clue about the treasures hidden inside.

The door into the chapel has a stone carved
with the date the chapel was built -1673.

The chapel interior is richly decorated with slightly
naive paintings of angels, clouds, stars and suns.

The colours are fabulous, still vibrant after over 300 years.
The ceiling designs were inspired by Italian baroque designs of the time.

This inscription reminds us of our own
mortality - 'watch for ye know not ye day or how'

Below is the gallery and ceiling at the back of the chapel.

Part of the downstairs of the chapel,
showing the imposing coat of arms of King Charles II.

The stained glass windows of this chapel
appear relatively plain from a distance,
just showing a little pastel colour.

However, when you look more closely,
in addition to the Tudor rose shown above,
there are small painted panels dotted all over the
windows - the paintings are of animals and birds.

This is a beautiful building, and well worth a visit.