Windsor Castle 

Windsor Castle is an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. A royal palace and fortress for over 900 years, the castle remains a working palace today.

Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace; for part of the year visitors can also see the Semi State Rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour.

• In 1992 fire destroyed or damaged more than 100 rooms at the Castle. By good fortune the rooms worst affected were empty at the time, and as a result, few of the Castle's artistic treasures were destroyed.The highly acclaimed restoration work, completed in 1997, is a testament to the extraordinary skills of some of the finest craftsmen in Europe.

Info for Disabled

Most public areas are accessible for wheelchair-users, including the State Apartments. Unfortunately for architectural and safety reasons it has not proved possible to provide wheelchair access to the Semi-State Rooms.

• Wheelchairs can be borrowed, free of charge, from the Visitor Centre. However, they cannot be pre-booked and must remain in the Castle grounds.

Further Information

Annual events at Windsor include the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle. The Queen hosts occasional 'dine and sleeps' for guests including politicians and public figures. Many royal weddings have also taken place here, most recently that of The Prince Edward and Miss Sophie Rhys-Jones in June 1999.