Castles!- Large Photos

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Byblos Castle is a castle in Byblos, Lebanon.
Map coordinates 34.119880, 35.646475It was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century from indigenous limestone and the remains of Roman structures. The finished structure was surrounded by a moat. Saladin captured the town and castle in 1188 and dismantled the walls in 1190. Later, the Crusaders recaptured Byblos and rebuilt the ramifications of the castle in 1197.

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Bagras or Baghras is the name of a town and nearby castle in present-day Turkey, in the Amanus Mountains.
Map coordinates 36.426571, 36.225113
The castle, properly known as Gastun provided a base for a force to cover the Syrian Gates, the passes between ?skenderun and Antioch. It was built about 1153 by the Knights Templars.
Interior view
corridor

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Klaipeda Castle, also known as Memelburg or Memel Castle, is a castle built by the Teutonic Knights in Klaipeda, Lithuania, near the Baltic Sea.
map coordinates 55.705556, 21.128889
The Christian Teutonic Order had been waging an ongoing war against the Prussians during the 13th century; in order to entrench their gains, the Teutons built a number of castles in the area. A written account of Memelburg is dated to 1252, when a Grand Master of the Teutons, represented by Eberhard von Seyne, made an agreement with the Curonian bishop to build this fortification.
Much of the medieval castle is under protective roofing as part of an ongoing acheological investigation.

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The site of the château de Château-Thierry is on a hillock overhanging the city and the valley of La Marne, in France. The occupation of the site goes up with VE century, but the ramparts were built gradually between IXE century and it XVIIE century, in particular by the count Thibaut IV of Blois (count of Blois and Champagne).
Map coordinates 49.047222, 3.402778

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Berg Castle (Luxembourgish: Schlass Bierg, French: Château de Berg, German: Schloss Berg), also called Colmar-Berg, is the principal residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. It is situated in the town of Colmar-Berg, in central Luxembourg.
Map coordinates 49.814167, 6.086944
The Grand Duke bought Berg Castle from the Pasquier estate in 1845, but the history ofthe castle goes back much further. Once it was the possesion of the Counts of Berg, though the current structure probably dates from the 15th century. In 1282 Adoplhe, the Count of Berg was named the successor to the Duchy of Luxembourg, but Renaud, Count de Gueldre, who had claims with the duchy, prevented him from taking possession of it.

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Samuil's Fortress is a fortress in the old part of Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, called the Ohrid Kale. It was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the rule of Samuil in the middle-ages. Today, this historical monument is a major tourist attraction. It was renovated in 2003.
Map coordinates 41.115392, 20.791349
According to recent excavations by Macedonian archaeologists, it was alleged that this fortress was built on the place of an earlier fortification, dated to 4th century B.C., which was probably built by king Phillip II of Macedon.

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Elton Hall is a baronial hall in Elton, Cambridgeshire that was built in the 15th century. It has been the ancestral home of the Proby family since 1660.
map coordinates 52.523611, -0.3975
Elton Hall stands on a site where there has been a house since the Norman Conquest. Sir Peter Proby, Lord Mayor of London and Comptroller of the Royal Household, was granted land and property at Elton by Queen Elizabeth I. His grandson, Sir Thomas Proby, completed the main house in 1666, incorporating the medieval chapel and gatehouse of the original castle.

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Kasteel Ammersoyen is on the northern bank of the Maas river in western Gelderland, a Dutch province. The castle was built in 1350. It was heavily damaged by fire in 1590, and sustained damage during World War II. The castle was reopened in 1975.
Map coordinates 51.751596, 5.229508
Ammersoyen has the moat arrangement typical of the Netherlands requiring two bridges to reach the main keep.

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Delgatie Castle is a castle near Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Map coordinates 57.5443, -2.412
A castle has stood on the site of Delgatie Castle since the year 1030 AD, although the earliest parts of the castle standing today were built between 1570 and 1579.

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Sverresborg or Sverre Sigurdsson's castle (also named Zion after King David's castle in Jerusalem) was a fortification built in the medieval city of Nidaros (later Trondheim) by Sverre Sigurdsson, the same man who built Sverresborg in Bergen.
Map coordinates 63.419722, 10.357222 In the winter of 1182-1183 Sverre initiated construction of Sverresborg (one of the earliest Norwegian fortresses) to provide him a more secure and more easily defended base from which to work. The entire castle mound is now an open air museum, though only fragments of the fortifications remain.

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The Bobolice Castle – a royal castle built in the middle of the 14th century in the territory of the Polish Jura Chain, in the village of Bobolice.
Map coordinates 50.611251, 19.494894
The castle in Bobolice was built by King Kazimierz III the Great in the middle of the 14th century, probably in place of an earlier wooden structure. According to 15th century chronicles, a representative of the Krezowie family captured and imprisoned his niece in the Bobolice Castle. She is still said to haunt the stronghold as a "lady in white". Bobolice underwent an extensive archeological survey followed by a restoration project.

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Castelo do Montemor-o-Velho is a Portuguese castle in Montemor-o-Velho, Coimbra. It has been listed as a National monument since 1910, but it is older than Portugal's nationality, having been built before 1139.
Map coordinates 40.176, -8.683
The city was conquered by al-Mansur in 991 and most of the castle's fortifications are identifiable from that time period, with later additions through the 14th century.

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Carmarthen (Welsh Caerfyrddin) is a castle in the county town of Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Map Coordinates 51.856011, -4.305681The strategic importance of Carmarthen was such that the Norman William fitz Baldwin built a castle probably around 1094. The existing castle site is known to have been used since 1105. The castle was destroyed by Llywelyn the Great in 1215. In 1223 the castle was rebuilt and permission was received to wall the town and crenellate.

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Castelo de Penela is located in a town of the same name in Coimbra region, Portugal. The castle was built on a hill dominating the area and used to be a stronghold protecting Coimbra in times of Reconquista.
map coordinates 40.031, -8.39
Penela's involvement in the Christian Reconquista starts with the conquest of Coimbra region by the troops of Ferdinand I of León (Fernando Magno) in 1064. In the next year the already walled settlement was granted a status of town along with four other nearby villages.

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Poenari Castle is a ruined castle in Romania, in Arge? County.
Map coordinates  45.353747, 24.635222
It was erected around the beginning of the 13th century by the first Romanian rulers in the South region of Romania, known as Wallachia. Around the 14th century, Poenari was the main citadel of the Basarab rulers.