Castles!- Large Photos

[DonaCatalina]

Today we will visit Gravensteen in Ghent. GRAVENSTEEN is the Dutch name for the 'castle of the count'. The present castle was built in 1180 by count Philip of Alsace [2] and was modelled after the crusaders castles the count encountered while he participated in the second crusade. Before its construction, there stood a wooden castle on the same location, presumably built in the ninth century. The castle served as the seat of the Counts of Flanders until they abandoned it in the 14th century.

[DonaCatalina]

Prepare to visit an amazing castle. Alnwick is a castle and stately home in Alnwick, Northumberland, England and the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times. Yves de Vescy, Baron of Alnwick, erected the first parts of the castle in 1096. It was built to defend England's northern border against the Scottish invasions and border reivers. It was besieged in 1172 and again in 1174 by William the Lion, King of Scotland and William was captured outside the walls during the Battle of Alnwick.
The castle consists of two main rings of buildings. The inner ring is set around a small courtyard and contains the principal rooms. This structure is at the centre of a large bailey. As the central block was not large enough to contain all the accommodations required in later centuries, a large range of buildings was constructed along the south wall of the bailey. These two main areas of accommodation are connected by a link building. There are towers at regular intervals along the walls of the outer bailey. About a sixth of the bailey wall has been reduced almost to ground level on the bailey side to open up views into the park.

[CinderellaInAFairytale]

I love this thread. Who ever came up with it ROCKS! i must have spent 45 minutes yesterday reading it!

[DonaCatalina]

Today we visit the home of the Marqueses de Villafranca. Castillo de Villafranca de Bierzo was built in the 15th century on the foundations of an earlier fortification.  The previous castle was attacked and destroyed by the illegitimate son of Count de Lemos, Pedro Alvarez Osorio, in the year 1507.  In 1515, Queen Juana la Loca permit granted to Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo (second Marquis of Villafranca), husband of Maria Osorio Bazan, daughter of the first marquesa to begin reconstruction. You might know the Marques's daughter as Eleonora de Toledo.







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[Jack Daw at Work]

BTW, Duart Castle was used as Sean Connery's character's home in Entrapment.  Connery is a MacLean on his mother's side.

[DonaCatalina]

Aydon Castle is our destination this morning.
Bring a sweater as Northumberland can still be chilly this time of year.
Aydon Castle is a fortified manor house at Aydon near to the town of Corbridge, Northumberland, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building.
Documentary evidence shows that a timber hall first existed on this site. The manor house was built by Robert de Reymes, a wealthy Suffolk merchant, starting in 1296 AD, adjacent to the steep valley of the Cor Burn. At this time the house consisted of a two-storeyed home with a solar, dining hall and kitchen on the upper floor. In 1305 he obtained a licence to crenellate his property and added battlements and curtain walls.It was captured by the Scots in 1315 and again in 1346. In the middle of the 16th century it was renovated and in the middle of 17th century it was converted into a farm. The building remained in use as a farm until 1966 but has since been restored to its medieval appearance.  It is managed by English Heritage.

[DonaCatalina]

Castello di Fénis is an Italian fortress dating back as early as the 1242 AD. The castle is located in the town of Aosta on the Dora Baltea River. map coordinates 45° 44' 13.23" N 7° 29' 41.97" E
It was constructed under the direction of Prince Challant who owned the region of Val d'Aosta and wanted to use it in order to control the area's iron trade. Though it has never been assaulted, it is fortified with tall stone walls and several cylindrical towers.

[DonaCatalina]

Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle is a medieval fortress in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, overlooking the Dordogne River in Perigord, southern France. It was erected to face its rival, the Château de Beynac.
The oldest documents mentioning it date to the 13th century, when it figured in the Albigensian Crusade; its Cathar castellan was Bernard de Casnac. Simon de Montfort took the castle and installed a garrison; when it was retaken by Bernard, he hanged them all. During the Hundred Years' War, the castellans of Castelnaud owed their allegiance to the Plantagenets, the sieurs de Beynac across the river, to the king of France.
Large Photo

[DonaCatalina]

Tolquhon Castle (pronounced: "toh-hon", and sometimes spelt 'Tolquhoun') is located in Aberdeenshire, about 20 miles northwest of Aberdeen. The current castle was built by William Forbes from 1584-1589 to replace an earlier towerhouse known as Preston's Tower, which is still partly intact, forming the left-hand tower when viewed from in front of the gatehouse (at the northern corner).
The castle features unusual gun ports in the towers adjacent to the entrance, a design which was subsequently used in Dean Castle. Also unusual is the stone tilework in the main hall.

[DonaCatalina]

Château de Beynac is a castle situated in the commune of Beynac-et-Cazenac, in the Dordogne département of France. The castle is one of the best preserved and best-known in the region.This Middle Ages construction, with its austere appearance, is perched on top of a limestone cliff, dominating the town and the north bank of the Dordogne River.
The castle was built from the 12th century by the barons of Beynac (one of the four baronies of Périgord) to close the valley. The sheer cliff face being sufficient to discourage any assault from that side, the defences were built up on the plateau: double crenellated walls, double moats, one of which was a deepened natural ravine, double barbican.
KeepThe oldest part of the castle is a large, square-shaped, Romanesque keep with vertical sides and few openings, held together with attached watch towers and equipped with a narrow spiral staircase terminating on a crenellated terrace. To one side, a residence of the same period is attached; it was remodelled and enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other side is a partly 14th century residence side-by-side with a courtyard and a square plan staircase serving the 17th century apartments.

[DonaCatalina]

Alnarp Castle is located in Alnarp, Lomma Municipality, Scania, approximately 10 km north of Malmö in southern Sweden. The original castle on the property was built in the 12th century. The present building was erected in 1862, in Dutch Renaissance style.
The castle was mentioned for the first time in the 1100s. In 1325 it belonged to the knight Anders Pedersen. and in 1400, the owner was Aage Nielsen Ulfeldt. In 1449, it had passed into the hands of Niels Stigsen Thott. The Ulfeldt and the Thott families were members of the old Scanian nobility. Through marriage, the castle eventually passed to the Krummedige family, and in 1500 it was owned by Erik Krummedige, a cousin of Henrik Krummedige and an advisor to the Danish king. In 1536, Christian III took possession of the castle for the Danish state. Today the castle forms part of the campus of the Swedish University.

[DonaCatalina]

Oddly enough I thought we had already visited Château de Chenonceau;
but perhaps that was on the old forum.
The Château de Chenonceau is a castle near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century. The current manor was designed by the French Renaissance architect Philibert Delorme.
The original 2nd edition manor was torched in 1411 to punish owner Jean Marques for an act of sedition. He rebuilt a castle and fortified mill on the site in the 1430s. Subsequently, his indebted heir Pierre Marques sold the castle to Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain for King Charles VIII of France in 1513. Bohier destroyed the existing castle and built an entirely new residence between 1515 and 1521; the work was sometimes overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet, who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions.

[DonaCatalina]

Castillo de Alcalá de Guadaíra
(14th century) was built on the ruins of a Moorish fortress which was built on the ruins of a Roman estate located in Alcalá de Guadaíra. Located approximately 10 km southeast of Seville, Spain; in recent years the expansion of Seville has meant that Alcalá has become a suburb of that city. Alcalá used to be known as Alcalá de los Panaderos (Alcalá of the bakers) because it provided most of Seville's bread. The town is located on the banks of the Guadaíra River, and watermills built during the Moorish period of Spain can still be found in the area.

[DonaCatalina]

Today we're going to Wales to visit Raglan Castle.
Raglan is a significant late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. Its origins lie in the 12th century but the ruins visible today date from the 15th century and later. It is likely that the early castle followed the motte-and-bailey design of most castles of this period and location and some traces of this early history can still be seen. The peak of the power and splendour of the castle was attained in the 15th century and 16th century, as the Marches fortress of the great family of Herbert. Its ruination came at the end of one of the longest sieges of the English Civil War.

[DonaCatalina]

Castillo de Alcalá de los Gazules is at the top of the hill where the population is located The community Alcalá de los Gazules in the province of Cadiz. Castle with fortification is of the style of military construction referred to as Almohades.
Although the original settlement was Roman, the castle was built by the Muslims from the centuries XII and XIII, and was in use until it was partially destroyed in the year 1811 during the Spanish War of Independence.  After building the Muslim population called the area "at Qalat Yazula" and later "Castillo de los Gazules" after being released by the king of Granada to the family of the same name. Today the ruins are under the protection of the cultural ministry.
Large photo of restoration here