EXPLORE
• Special Exhibition Gallery
• Audio Visual Room
• Museum Gallery
• Tom Crean Room
• Knight’s Hall
- Medieval Experience
• Special Exhibition Gallery
• Audio Visual Room
• Museum Gallery
• Tom Crean Room
• Knight’s Hall
- Medieval Experience
Medieval ExperienceTralee in 1450 is recreated in the Medieval Experience. Here you can stroll through the streets, experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of a bustling medieval community. You can find out what people wore, what they ate and where they lived, and why the Fitzgeralds, the Earls of Desmond, who founded the town, also destroyed it. Medieval Tralee has been reconstructed from a wide variety of archaeological, architectural and documentary sources. Every available piece of information on the medieval history of the town was tracked down and utilised. In the course of creating Medieval Tralee town walls, castles and churches throughout Ireland were investigated for details of their masonry and design. Illuminated manuscripts and monumental tombs were combed for information on clothes and weaponry. Archaeological excavations were sieved for evidence relating to crafts, trade and industry. The resulting recreation conveys the sights, sounds and smells of a typical Irish market town in the year 1450.
Tralee was established by John FitzThomas FitzGerald around 1216 and he founded the Dominican Abbey here in 1243. It was its location beside the sea that attracted the Normans to the site and throughout the medieval period Tralee functioned as a port, exporting hides, wool, timber and fish, and importing wine, salt and iron ore. The main street was known as Burgess St, and both stone and timber houses were built on it. A market cross was located in the centre of the street and here proclamations were read. In 1580 the Earl of Desmond burned down the town of Tralee as part of a deliberate scorched earth policy in his power struggle with the English Crown. By the end of the 17th century very little of the town survived. A number of architectural stone fragments from the Dominican Abbey were recovered during recent excavations and these few stones are
virtually all that remains of medieval Tralee.
Tralee was established by John FitzThomas FitzGerald around 1216 and he founded the Dominican Abbey here in 1243. It was its location beside the sea that attracted the Normans to the site and throughout the medieval period Tralee functioned as a port, exporting hides, wool, timber and fish, and importing wine, salt and iron ore. The main street was known as Burgess St, and both stone and timber houses were built on it. A market cross was located in the centre of the street and here proclamations were read. In 1580 the Earl of Desmond burned down the town of Tralee as part of a deliberate scorched earth policy in his power struggle with the English Crown. By the end of the 17th century very little of the town survived. A number of architectural stone fragments from the Dominican Abbey were recovered during recent excavations and these few stones are
virtually all that remains of medieval Tralee.
