Castles!- Large Photos

[DonaCatalina]

Castello dell'Acciaiolo dates back to the middle of the 14th century when the fortification, also know as 'villa' due to its mainly residential destination, belonged to the Rucellai family. Castello dell'Acciaiolo, more commonly referred to simply as "Acciaiolo", can be found in Scandicci. The monumental complex consists of the villa with outbuildings, and its garden and park.
Behind the imposing building lies a centuries-long story already beginning, according to historical sources, in the fourteenth century. The lords of this area at that time were the family Rucellai, one of the most important Florentine houses of the age which boasted landholdings throughout the Tuscan countryside.
Then the castle was called by the name Calcherelli and originally had a military function. In the following century the castle passed into the hands of the family Davizzi, whose coat of arms can still be seen on the north tower.
In 1546 the castle was acquired by Roberto di Donato Acciaioli and from that point on the was called Castello Acciaiolo, after the new owners.
It was in this period that the "Acciaiolo" was enhanced with its most notable architectural features. Its entrance, staircase, grand fireplace, and paneled ceilings distinguish it to this day.
But the military structure, dating back to the fourteenth century, remains largely unaltered, even though the castle has lost its original, defensive purpose. In fact, in the two centuries of ownership by the Acciaoli, the castle enhanced its role as a posh residence tightly coupled to the agricultural activities of the region.

[Lady Rebecca]

Thank you so much for visiting Alnwick castle! We went there this summer, since it was where a couple of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. I loved the fact that it is still lived in. In the library, among all the old books, were a foosball table, a remote-controlled helicopter, a bar, and several TV remotes. It's closed to the public from Oct-Mar because the family is there.

Can you pu Warkworth castle up? We went there this summer as well, and stayed in a B&B where my window looked right at the castle. Here's a picture of the castle, taken from inside my bedroom:


Also, does anyone know if this is an actual castle, or just a random watch-tower? It's right past a bridge, a few minutes from Cobh, Ireland:

[DonaCatalina]

Älvsborgs Fästning (Älvsborg castle) was located at the Klippan area at the harbour entrance of Gothenburg, Sweden. It was originally a castle built by the Swedes in the 14th century. After the Danes several times easily conquered the castle, the fortification works was gradually expanded.
Today only small remains of the fortress can be seen. The Fortress gave name to a settlement in New Sweden, North America: Fort Nya Elfsborg.
Map coordinates 57.685, 11.838889

[DonaCatalina]

Warkworth Castle is a ruined, although reasonably well preserved castle, situated in Warkworth, Northumberland, England on a defensive mound in a loop of the River Coquet. Warkworth Castle was originally constructed as a wooden fortress on a motte and bailey arrangement, some time after the Norman Conquest. It was later ceded to the Percy family, who held it, and resided there on and off (dependent on the state of their often stormy relationship with the royalty of the time) until the 16th century.

[DonaCatalina]

Castel del Monte (Italian: Castle of the Mount) is a 13th century castle situated in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. It was built by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II some time between 1240 and 1250; it has been despoiled of its interior marbles and furnishings in subsequent centuries. It has neither a moat nor a drawbridge and might in fact never have been intended as a defensive fortress.
Map Coordinates 41.084167, 16.271389

[DonaCatalina]

Castillo de Alcaudete was built in the early thirteenth century over the site of a Moorish fortress. First known mention in historical annals of the fortress is in 1085, when Alfonso VI conqured it. The castle changed hands many times over the following centuries.
Known by the Moors as al-Qabdaq, or the city of springs, due to the abundance of fresh springs in the area, Alcuadete was the site of a number of disputes between the Moors and the Christians. The castle that stands today was built by the Order of Calatrava in the thirteenth century and subsequently sold to the crown. It was awarded to one of the branches of the Fernández de Córdoba family, la de Montemayor.

[DonaCatalina]

Dunseverick Castle is situated in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, near the small village of Dunseverick and the Giant's Causeway. Dunseverick Castle and the peninsula on which it stands were given to the National Trust in 1962 by local farmer Jack McCurdy. The Causeway Cliff Path also runs past on its way to Dunseverick Harbour to the east and to the Giant's Causeway to the west.
Saint Patrick is recorded as having visited Dunseverick castle in the 5th century AD, where he baptized Olcan, a local man who later became a Bishop of Ireland. The original stone fort that occupied the position was attacked by Viking raiders in 870 AD.
The castle was occupied by various Irish chief's and lord's until its capture and destruction by General Robert Munro and his Cromwellian troops in the 1650s, and today only the ruins of the gatelodge remain. A small residential tower survived until 1978 when it eventually surrendered to the sea below.
It was a 'key' ancient site in Ireland. One of the royal roads from Tara, seat of the Kings of Ireland ended at Dunseverick castle.

[DonaCatalina]

Donnington Castle (51°25?11?N 1°20?17?W? / ?51.41972°N 1.33806°W? / 51.41972; -1.33806) is a ruined medieval castle, situated in the small village of Donnington, just north of the town of Newbury in the English county of Berkshire.
Donnington Castle was built by its original owner, Richard Abberbury the Elder, under a licence granted by Richard II in 1386 AD. The surviving castle gatehouse dates from this time. The castle was subsequently bought by Thomas Chaucer, the son of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, as a residence for his daughter Alice, who later became Duchess of Suffolk. This family later fell out with the Tudor monarchs, and the castle became a Royal property. Both King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I visited Donnington Castle and the latter wanted to live there during her imprisonment by her sister, Queen Mary I, but this was not allowed.

[DonaCatalina]

Ogmore Castle, situated near the village of Ogmore-by-sea, south of the town of Bridgend in Glamorgan, South Wales, was initially constructed in 1116 by William de Londres as part of the Norman invasion of Wales.
It is one of three castles built by the Normans in the area at the time, the others being Coity Castle and Newcastle, Bridgend. Today it is an extensive set of ruins.
Ogmore Castle is situated on the south bank of the River Ewenny shortly before it joins with the River Ogmore.

[DonaCatalina]

The Aljafería is a fortified palace built during the second half of the eleventh century in Zaragoza, as the residence of the Banu Hud dynasty during the era of Abu Jaffar Al-Muqtadir and reflecting the splendor attained by the kingdom of the taifa of Zaragoza at the height of its grandeur. The palace currently contains the Cortes (regional parliament) of the autonomous community of Aragon.
Interior of the AljaferiaThe structure holds unique importance in that it is the only conserved testimony of a large building of Spanish Islamic architecture of the era of the Taifas (independent kingdoms). Next to the magnificent examples of the Caliph of Cordoba's Mezquita (10th century) and the Alhambra (14th century), the Aljaferia of Zaragoza (11th century) should be included in the triad of Moorish architecture.
After the capture of Zaragoza in 1118 by Alfonso I of Aragon, the Aljaferia became the residence of the Christian kings of the Kingdom of Aragon and as such was converted into the focal point for spread of the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon. It was the birthplace of Saint Isabel of Portugal in the year 1271. It was used as the royal residence by Pedro IV of Aragon and subsequently, on the principal building site, a renovation was carried out that converted these chambers into the palace of the Catholic Kings , Fernando and Isabel, in 1492.

[DonaCatalina]

The Old Castle (German: Altes Schloss) is located in the centre of Stuttgart, the capital of the German State of Baden-Württemberg. It dates back to the 10th century.
The first castle dated back to around 950 when Stuttgart was a settlement for breeding horses. In the 14th century it became the residence of the Counts of Württemberg. In the 16th century dukes Christopher and Ludwig ordered it to be converted into a Renaissance castle. Moats around the castle were removed in the 18th century.
In 1931 the castle was severely damaged by a fire and before it could be reconstructed it was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The castle was finally renovated in 1969.
Today the Old Castle is home to the State Museum of Württemberg.
King Charles I of Württemberg and his wife Olga are buried beneath the castle church. The inner courtyard houses a monument to Eberhard I. The Old Castle stands adjacent to its replacement, the New Castle, which was built in the late 18th century.

[DonaCatalina]

The Château de Châteaudun is a castle located in the town of Châteaudun in the French département of Eure-et-Loir. The castle was built between the 12th and 16th centuries.
Map coordinates 48.070556, 1.323611
The Count of Blois Thibaut V had the keep built around 1170. The Sainte-Chapelle was built between 1451 and 1493. The choir and the high chapel were built between 1451 and 1454, with the nave and the oratory between 1460 and 1464.
Jehan de Dunois, the bâtard d'Orléans (Bastard of Orléans), built the west wing (the "aile Dunois") between 1459 and 1468.
The bell tower was erected in 1493.
François I of Orléans-Longueville began construction of the north wing (the "aile Longueville") between 1469 and 1491. The upper floors were added by François II d'Orléans-Longueville and his descendants during the first quarter of the 16th century.

[DonaCatalina]

Arenberg Castle is a castle in Heverlee close to Leuven in Belgium. It is surrounded by a park.
The site had been the castle of the lords of Heverlee since the 12th century, but this family became impoverished and had to sell the site in 1445 to the Croÿ family from Picardy. Antoon van Croy demolished the medieval castle and started works to build the current castle in 1515 on the site of a medieval castle, of which he destroyed all but one tower.Willem van Croÿ completed the works on the castle in 1515, and donated a Celestine monastery in the castle grounds, now the campus library. The architectural style is in large part traditionally Flemish, with sandstone window frames and brick walls, though it has been structurally altered since 1515 and has elements of Gothic, Renaissance and Neo Gothic architecture. Its large corner towers are typical, once surmounted by a German eagle.
map coordinates 50.8625, 4.682778

[DonaCatalina]

We haven't been to Portugal for quite some time. I think you will find Castelo de Guimarães to be a treat. Castelo de Guimaraes is probably the best known and mythical in Portugal as it represents the birth of the nation. In fact it is known as the "Cradle of the Nation" because it was here where Don Afonso Henriques was born and raised and where he planned the wars for the independence of the Portugal province during the 12th century, becoming the first Portuguese king.
The origins of the Guimaraes castle can be traced back to 968, when the Countess of Galicia, D. Mumadona Dias, ordered the construction of a fortification to defend the populations and the existing monastery against the raids of the Norman / Vikings hordes from the coast and the Moors (Arabs) from the south. During the 11th century, Guimaraes had its defensive structure extensively enhanced when Count Henrique assumed the government of the province from King D. Alfonso VI of Leon. The existing tower and wall were augmented with additional towers, a keep and the widening of the original wall.

Map coordinates 41.4479, -8.2906

[DonaCatalina]

A great number of castles in Romania were destroyed during the two World Wars.
But today we are going to visit Fagaras.
Fagaras was during the Middle Ages, together with Amla?, a traditional Vlach enclave in Transylvania. The first written document mentioning Romanians in Transylvania referred to Vlach lands ("Terra Blacorum") in the Fogaras Region in 1222. (In this document, Andrew II of Hungary gave Burzenland and the Cuman territories South of Burzenland up to the Danube to the Teutonic Knights.) After the Tatar invasion in 1241-1242, Saxons settled in the area. In 1369, Louis I of Hungary gave the Royal Estates of F?g?ra? to his vassal, Vladislav I of Wallachia, the territory remained in the possession of Wallachian Princes until 1464.
Except for this period of Wallachian rule, the town itself was centre of the surrounding royal estates belonging to the Hungarian kings. During the rule of Transylvanian Prince Gabriel Bethlen (1613-1629), the city became an economic role model city in the southern regions of the realm. Bethlen rebuilt the fortress entirely.
Ever since that time, F?g?ra? was the residence of the wives of Transylvanian Princes, as an equivalent of Veszprém, the Hungarian "city of queens". Of these, Zsuzsanna Lorántffy, the widow of George I Rákóczy established a Vlach (Romanian) school here in 1658. Probably the most prominent of the princesses residing in the town was the orphan Princess Kata Bethlen (1700-1759), buried in front of the Reformed church. The church holds several precious relics of her life. Her bridal gown, with the family coat of arms embroidered on it, and her bridal veil now covers the altar table. Both are made of yellow silk.