Summerhall
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Summerhall stood in the Dornish Marches, where Dorne, the Reach, and the Stormlands meet, and for two generations it served as the summer retreat of House Targaryen and, in time, as a working royal seat.
Only ruins remain: a devastating fire destroyed the castle along with much of the court staying there, and no one ever rebuilt it. That same disaster coincided with the birth of a prince, and decades later the ruins had another chapter to add to their history, as the site of a battle.
Construction and residents
King Daeron II Targaryen had Summerhall built in the Dornish Marches, right where that region borders the Reach and the Stormlands. In his early years as king he used it so often that the court all but moved there each summer; as he aged, he left King's Landing less and less.
The castle later passed to his youngest son, Prince Maekar, who kept his household there even after the Blackfyre Rebellion. It suited him: Daeron's heir, Baelor Breakspear, held Dragonstone, and the next in line, Aerys and Rhaegel, rarely strayed from court. Whoever held Summerhall came to be styled Prince of Summerhall, and Maester Melaquin served there.
After the tourney at Ashford Meadow, Maekar wanted his son Aegon brought back to the castle, but Ser Duncan the Tall took the boy on as his squire instead. Aegon kept a dragon's egg at Summerhall. Maekar himself went on living there after his brother, King Aerys I, named Brynden Rivers his Hand.
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Fire of 259 AC
In 259 AC a fire tore through Summerhall and left it in the ruin it remains today. King Aegon V Targaryen died in the flames, along with his son and heir, Prince Duncan, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Duncan the Tall, and a good part of the court gathered there. That same day, in that same castle, Prince Rhaegar was born.
Rhaegar grew up with a strange attachment to those ruins: people said he was never happier than there, though the memory of what had happened also weighed on him. He liked to visit alone, and to sleep in the broken hall under open sky, by moon and starlight.
Maester Aemon came to believe that Rhaegar's birth, falling on the same day as the tragedy, marked him as the prince that was promised. Rhaegar, once grown, decided the prophecy pointed instead to his own son, Aegon.
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Battle of Summerhall
With Robert's Rebellion underway, the lords of the Stormlands split between loyalty to King Aerys II Targaryen and loyalty to their own liege, Robert Baratheon. The king's supporters among Houses Fell, Cafferen, and Grandison agreed to gather their strength at Summerhall before marching together on Storm's End.
Robert learned of the plan in time and struck at Summerhall before they could join forces, defeating the three armies one after another. The ruins of the old summer castle gained one more chapter in their history, this time as a battlefield.
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The physical world
Se asentó donde Dorne, el Dominio y las Tierras de la Tormenta se unen, cerca del final del Camino Pedregoso.
What it is like · El Mundo de Hielo y Fuego, Los Reyes Targaryen, Daeron II.
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Gallery

SummerhallBattleOfSummerhall.jpg · gameofthrones.fandom.com · this wiki publishes under CC-BY-SA
Events
What happened here
- 259 ACTragedy at Summerhall · burning
- 282 ACBattle of Summerhall · battle
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On the map
On the map
What we are not sure about
NameThe sources disagree
The reading of the label on the base map is not certain. What was read was “merhall”.
Books and show
Where it appears
In the books (7)
- The World of Ice & Fire
- The Hedge Knight
- The Mystery Knight
- The Sworn Sword
- A World of Ice and Fire
- A Feast for Crows
- A Storm of Swords