Castles!- Large Photos

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Happy Christmas Eve!
Zvolen Castle is a medieval castle located on a hill near the center of Zvolen, in central Slovakia.
Map coordinates 48.573056, 19.127222
The original seat of the region was above the confluence of Slatina and Hron rivers on a steep cliff in a castle from the 12th century, known today as Pustý hrad (meaning "Deserted castle"). Its difficult access had consequence in relocation of the seat to the new-built Zvolen castle, which was ordered by Louis I the Great as a hunting residence of Hungarian kings. The future queen regnant Mary of Hungary and emperor Sigismund celebrated their wedding there in 1385.

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Hello, I've been having connectivity issues, but it looks like I can now start getting caught up.
Borve Castle, also known as Castle Wearie, and Caisteal Bhuirgh in Scottish Gaelic, is a ruined 14th century tower house, located at the south-west of the island of Benbecula, in the Western Isles of Scotland.
Map coordinates 57.430547, -7.377219
MacGibbon and Ross attributed the building of the tower to Amie MacRuari, wife of John of Islay, and dated it to between 1344 and 1363.

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Château de Falaise is a castle located in the south of the commune of Falaise ("cliff" in French) in the Calvados département of Normandy, France.
map coordinates 48.8936, -0.2039
The castle (12th–13th century), which overlooks the town from a high crag, was formerly the seat of the Dukes of Normandy. The construction was started on the site of an earlier castle in 1123 by Henry I of England, with the "large keep" (grand donjon).

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Niddry Castle is a fourteenth century tower house near Winchburgh, West Lothian, Scotland.
map coordinates 55.953692, -3.448733
The tower was built around 1500 by Lord Seton. Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed here 2 May 1568, after her escape from captivity in Loch Leven Castle.

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Ravne Castle (Slovene: Grad Ravne, German: Streiteben) is a castle near the town of Ravne na Koroskem, in the Carinthia region of northern Slovenia.
Map coordinates 46.543511, 14.960398
The castle's German name is derived from the name of the Hebenstreit family, who built the castle in the 16th century. It is located on a gravelly terrace above the center of town of Ravne na Koroškem, on the Ravne plateau near the banks of the Meža river. It was later rebuilt into a baroque style by the Counts of Thurm.

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Castillo de Jimena de la Frontera is located in the province of Cádiz, Spain.
Map coordinates 36.833454, -5.455629
The castle(s), which anchor two ends of a long narrow ridge, are of both Moorish and Roman origin. The castle and town started out as the fortified Roman city of Oba, identified by inscriptions and a series of coins excavated from the site.

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Midhope Castle is a 16th century fortified tower house in Scotland.
map coordinates 55.991878, -3.487039
The derelict chateau that can be seen today represents the much-altered 5 storey, oblong tower house. In 1678 Midhope was given a facelift, when an entrance tower was removed and the extension to the east was heightened and extended.

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Happy New Year's Eve. May your 2010 be much better than your 2009 was.
Dinefwr Castle (sometimes anglicized as Dynevor) is a Welsh castle overlooking the River Tywi near the town of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
map coordinates 51.8768, -4.0184
Traditionally, a castle was first constructed on this site by Rhodri the Great, but there are no remains from this period. Dinefwr later became the chief seat of Rhodri's grandson Hywel Dda, dating the castle to about 1155.

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Münchenstein Castle is a landmark above the village centre of Münchenstein, in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. The ruins of the castle can still be visited and viewed, but are under private ownership.
Map coordinates 47.512522, 7.621525
The exact dates of the castle erection remains unclear, but most likey building began in the time between 1260 and 1270.

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Old Wardour Castle is located near Tisbury in the English county of Wiltshire.
map coordinates 51.0365, -2.0888
The castle was built on land previously owned by the St Martin family, but when Sir Lawrence de St Martin died in 1385 it was handed over to John, the fifth Baron Lovell for reasons unknown. The outer walls have an interesting semi-hexagonal shape.

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Vittskovle Castle is a castle in Kristianstad, Sweden.
Map coordinates 55.854722, 14.133333
It is one of the best-preserved renaissance castles in the Nordic countries, and was erected by Jens Brahe in the 16th century as a defence structure. It is currently the private residence of the Stjernswärd family.

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Shmemis is a castle located 5 km north west of Salamiyah and 30 km south east from Hama, Syria.
Map coordinates 35.0368, 37.013508
The castle (Qalat Shmamis) was first built, on top of an extinct volcano, in the first century BCE by the Emesan Arab dynasty called the Sempsigerami.

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Yoros Castle is a ruined castle at the confluence of the Bosporus and the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey.
map coordinates 41.179, 29.094
Yoros Castle was settled by the Phoenicians and Greeks prior to the Byzantine period for trading and military purposes. Yoros Castle was intermittently occupied throughout the course of the Byzantine Empire.

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Zolochiv Castle was a residence of the Sobieski noble family on a hill in the south-eastern part of Zolochiv, Galicia in Ukraine.
Map coordinates 49.803032, 24.906201
The rectangular fortification was built in 1634-36 by Jakub Sobieski using the labor of enslaved Crimean Tatars.

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Olderfleet Castle (more correctly a four-storey tower house built in the 13th Century), was an Irish castle, the remains of which stand on the Curran Point to the south of Larne Harbour in Larne Lough, present-day Northern Ireland.
Map coordinates 54.845, -5.809
In 1315 Edward Bruce landed here with his 6000 strong army en route to conquer Ireland.