William the Conqueror began Windsor Castle in the decade after 1066 as a motte-and-bailey fortress guarding the River Thames, with a keep on a chalk mound. Henry I first used it as a royal residence, and Henry II replaced the early keep with a stone shell keep. The present Round Tower is based on that 12th-century building. Edward III rebuilt the palace, spending £51,000 between 1350 and 1377.
St George's Chapel, begun in 1475 under Edward IV, is regarded as one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic. In the 1820s the architect Jeffry Wyatville remodeled the Upper Ward for George IV in a Gothic and Rococo-influenced style and raised the Round Tower in height. The State Apartments show Classical, Gothic, Rococo and Baroque styles.
A fire in 1992 destroyed nine principal state rooms before they were restored. Visits to the castle are limited and ticketed.
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