Hugh d'Avranches, described as the second Earl of Chester, built Chester Castle in 1070 as a motte-and-bailey castle on high ground overlooking the River Dee. A stone Flag Tower replaced the wooden tower in the twelfth century. Henry III's reign saw the outer bailey walls built, and Edward I added a new outer gateway. The Agricola Tower holds the chapel of St Mary de Castro, with early thirteenth-century frescoes.
Thomas Harrison designed the neoclassical buildings from 1788, and Nikolaus Pevsner called them one of the most powerful monuments of the Greek Revival in England. They include the Propylaeum entrance, with widely spaced Doric columns, and the former Shire Hall, with a 19-bay facade.
A mint was established in 1696 under Edmund Halley. The Crown Court sits in the former Shire Hall, and a military museum occupies the barracks.
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