Canongate

Kenongate owes its origin to the founding of Holyrood Abbey in 1128 . King David I , who founded the abbey, gave the surrounding territories to the monks of the Augustinian order and assigned it the status of a free city . The territories formerly owned by Canongate now cover the Broughton, Pleasance, and parts of Leith through which Canongate has access to the sea.

In the XIV century, near the abbey was built a royal residence - Holyrood Palace . The free city was at enmity with its neighbor Edinburgh because of disputes over the borders of Canningate until the unification in 1856 .

Canongate began to lose its former power with the unification of England and Scotland with the first common monarch in 1603 and the subsequent transfer of the royal court to London . The formation of a single state in 1707 brought Kenongate to even greater decline. The outflow of influential people from the Canongate region was also caused by the expansion of Edinburgh at the expense of the New City . During the Enlightenment in Kenongate, the Kenongate Theater was founded, where David Hume , Lord Monboddo and other intellectuals of the time gathered. A series of works by Walter Scott , The Canongate Chronicles , was named after the eponymous district.

In the Canongate region, many times they tried to improve the quality of life and get rid of slums . In the 1950s and 1960s, Kenongate was "rehabilitated." Residential buildings were rebuilt, some of them repeated buildings of past centuries.

Due to the redevelopment, the previously overcrowded region, consisting primarily of poor words of the population, has undergone severe depopulation . In the 1980s, Canongate became less industrial, many breweries were closed. Dwelling houses and offices were built on the site of factories in the 1990-2000s, due to which the population increased again. With the opening of the new Scottish Parliament building in 2004, Canongate again became the center of Scotland's political life.

Today, Kenongate Street is the final stretch of the Royal Mile. It houses the Royal Mile Primary School - an elementary school for children 5-11 years old. The school also has a kindergarten for children 3-5 years old. On Canongate, there is the Morea House - the Faculty of Education of the University of Edinburgh . Several university buildings are located in territories formerly referred to as the Free City, including the Center for Physical Culture and Sports

The former prison and court, Kenongate Tolbut , now houses the Museum of Popular History . A little further away is the Edinburgh Museum . Opposite it is the Kenongate Church , built in the unusual Dutch colonial style for the buildings of the Church of Scotland . At the church cemetery are the graves of many famous Scots, including Adam Smith , David Riccio, and poet Robert Ferguson .

The former Canongate Mercate Cross is located on the right side of the entrance to the Canongate Church. Previously, he stood on the road, but was moved to the side so as not to impede traffic. The second merkat cross previously stood at the intersection of the street with St. John's Street . The former location is indicated by the Maltese cross on the roadway. This part of Canongate previously had its own trading rules and privileges.

• Dennison, E. Patricia. Holyrood and Canongate: A Thousand Years of History. - Birlinn Ltd, 2005 .-- 207 p. - ISBN 978-1841584041 .