Craig-y-Nos: A Colourful Past
Find out more about the colourful past of Craig-y-Nos Castle and Country Park
Home to a world famous Victorian opera star
As a time when other women were staying home and raising families, Adelina Patti became one of the highest paid singers there has ever been. She was a world famous soprano who lived a life of luxury and made Craig-y-Nos her home, because she believed the air would be particularly good for her voice. Read more about her below.
Craig-y-nos Tuberculosis Sanatorium
From 1920 to 1960 the Castle, it’s grounds and the clean, damp air were put to use as the castle became a Sanatorium for children with tuberculosis. Children stayed for years. The draconian regime based on the treatments of that time for the disease which took young lives, included immobilising patients in plaster, sleeping on the balconies shown in the photo, outdoors to help them breathe.
Welcome to Craig-y-Nos a colourful past
As a time when other women were staying home and raising families, Adelina Patti became one of the highest paid singers there has ever been (taking inflation into account). She was a world famous soprano who lived a life of luxury.
Across her 60 year career, she sang in opera houses, and performed in tours for her adoring public across Europe, Russia, America, and South America. She performed for royals including Queen Victoria, and politicians including President Abraham Lincoln.
Adelina funded a local railway station with a private road and a lavish waiting room, it is said that when she wanted to travel to London all the trains were held up, so her train could pass without waiting.
She was born in Madrid in 1843, to Italian parents, as a child the family moved to the New York Bronx. Her musical parents recognised her talent early.
This superstar of the Victorian era made her home at Craig-y-nos Castle. She had a theatre installed with a mechanical floor that could be raised to become a ballroom or dropped to provide a stage for her performances. Today the Castle is a hotel and the ballroom is popular for weddings. The landscaped Victorian Gardens are today a separate Country Park run by the National Park Authority. Some local people’s grand parents worked for Adelina as gardeners and servants and she is remembered as a generous employer who held popular Christmas parties for local families.
The site has a long history; there are Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman remains in the surrounding hills, and it is believed that the current castle sits on the same site once occupied in the early medieval period by the castle of the local Welsh Prince.
