If you are into Wagner or legends you might have heard of Tristan and Isolde. If not you can read all about it here about Wagner’s Opera or general useful information here. Oh yes, there is also a movie made in 2006 about this story.
To tell you the truth, before the movie, I have never heard of this legend. It’s one of those epic love story that apparently everyone knew about except me.
The jest of the story is that Tristan, a nephew of a King Mark, went to Ireland to pick up the king’s bride to be Isolde, an Irish princess. On his way there, Isolda drank a love potion and fell madly in love with Tristan. Some story says he drank the potion some say she drank the potion. The net net is that they fell in love. Isolde had to marry the king and kept meeting up with Tristan. Needless to say, the king was pretty POed when he found out. To remedy this, Tristan drank a death potion and killed himself.
You probably just want to watch the movie or if Wagner’s opera to get a better idea of the story.
Isolde’s tower is in Dublin! It’s kind of weird Dublin Tourism never publicized this. I found it by chance by looking through some other website.
If you are looking for it, it’s on Exchange Street Lower. It’s right in Temple Bar next to an apartment building appropriately named Isolde’s tower.
It is just a big hole on the ground with metal grate around it. It also got a little plaque explaining what it is. It looked like at one point you could walk down there to take a better look, but when we were there it was locked.
A blip about the tower,
From the gate,
As you can see, it kind of looks like a well, and it’s very old!
I would highly recommend go checking it out if you are in the area. It’s a great piece of history!