Castles!- Large Photos

[DonaCatalina]

Kantara Castle is the easternmost of the castles situated on the Kyrenia mountain range in Northern Cyprus. Laying at 630 metres above sea level it is well positioned to control the entrances to Karpass Peninsula and Mesaoria plain.
map coordinates 35.4, 33.916667
It is thought to be built in the 10th century as a lookout post by the Byzantines against the raiding Arabs. The castle is first time mentioned in history when Richard the Lionheart captured Cyprus in 1191 and Isaac Comnenus, the Byzantine ruler of the island, took refuge in the castle.
Later, in 1228 the walls were so badly bombarded by Royalists that the walls had to be almost entirely rebuilt. Then, the castle was used as a hunting louge for nobles to hunt mountain goats with tamed leopards.

[DonaCatalina]

Blatná is a water castle in the center of an artificial lake and a landscape garden around it. It lies in a pleasant rolling countryside with a mosaic of fields, meadows and hundreds of ponds and nearly no industry. It is located in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic.
map coordinates 49.424722, 13.881944
The first written record of Blatná dates back to 1235, when probably just a wooden fortress built on a rocky piece of land in the middle of a marshland (blata in old Czech, hence the name Blatná - A Marshy Place) existed. Not much is known about the castle until the second half of the 13th century, when it becomes the property of the house of Bavorové of Strakonice. There exists a legend that in those times the fortress was a seat of the Templars who are said to have hidden a treasure somewhere in the castle. The only remaining construction from this period are the foundations of a Romanesque chapel.

[DonaCatalina]

Dronninglund Castleis located in the northern part of the Jutland Peninsula, Denmark. Its history goes back to the 12th century, when it was a Benedictine monastery. After the last nuns left it in 1581, it was first owned by the Lindenow family. In 1690, Queen Charlotte Amalie acquired it.

[DonaCatalina]

Hermann Castle (also Hermannsburg, Herman Castle, Narva Castle, Estonian: Hermanni linnus) is a castle in Narva, eastern Estonia. It was founded in 1256 by the Danes and the first stone castle was built in the beginning of the 14th century. The German Livonian Teutonic knights order purchased the castle on 29 August 1346 and for most of its history the castle was German Teutonic.
map coordinates 59.375833, 28.201944
It faces Ivangorod castle across the river in Russia.

[DonaCatalina]

Ivangorod is a Russian medieval castle established by Ivan III in 1492 and since then grown into the town of Ivangorod.
The fortress overlooks the Narva River opposite the Narva Hermann Castle and the Estonian city of Narva.
The original castle was constructed in one summer, in the year 1492. It was named after Moscovian Grand Prince Ivan III. Its purpose was to fend off the Livonian Knights. The castle is strictly quadrilateral, measuring 1,600 sq ft (150 m2), with walls 14 meters tall. During the Russo-Swedish War, 1496-1499, the entire population inside the fortress was destroyed after a seven-hour siege by Swedish forces.

[DonaCatalina]

Ready for some cool weather? We're going waaay up north.
Olavinlinna (Swedish: Olofsborg; literally St. Olaf's Castle) is a 15th century three-tower castle located in Savonlinna, Finland. It is the world's most northern medieval stone fortress still standing.
The fortress was founded by Erik Axelsson Tott in 1475 under the name Sankt Olofsborg in an effort to profit from the political turmoil following Ivan III's conquest of the Novgorod Republic. It was sited in Savonia so as to lay claim to the Russian side of the border established by the Treaty of Nöteborg. Olavinlinna has three towers.One of Tott's letters from 1477 includes a passing mention of foreign builders invited to Olofsborg, probably from Reval, where the city fortifications were being extended. It was the first Swedish castle provided with a set of thickset circular towers that could withstand cannon fire. It is not by accident that a network of lakes and waterways forms the setting for the castle, for these would seriously impede a prospective Russian offensive.

[DonaCatalina]

The Château d'Ingrandes is in the borough d'Ingrandes 7 km in the west of Blanc Defended by the valley of Anglin in the south, and by deep ditches ( now disappeared) in north, the feudal castle was built with 11th century. It was built on the site of one castrum Romanum, connecting the Roman Road of Bourges with Poitiers .The country was English at that time, belonging to the fief of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

[DonaCatalina]

Kirchheim Castle in Swabia lies at the edge of the old city of Kirchheim unter Teck. Built in 1578, this Renaissance castle is the most well-kept example of Württemberg duchy strongholds.

[Jack Daw at Work]

I always love these pics!!  After viewing all those lovely stone homes, I can't help but feel pleasingly clammy and damp.

[DonaCatalina]

Acrocorinth (Greek: ), "Upper Corinth", the acropolis of ancient Corinth, is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. "It is the most impressive of the acropoleis of mainland Greece," in the estimation of George Forrest.[1] Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from archaic times to the early nineteenth century. The city's archaic acropolis, already an easily defensible position due to its geomorphology, was further heavily fortified during the Byzantine Empire as it became the seat of the strategos of the Thema of Hellas. It was defended against the Crusaders for three years by Leo Sgouros.

[LadyShadow]

Oh very beautiful.

[DonaCatalina]

Castle Cornet is a large castle in Guernsey, and former tidal island, which is now part of one of the breakwaters of St Peter Port's harbour, the main one in the island.
map coordinates 49.452997, -2.526333
Formerly a tidal island, like Lihou on the west coast of Guernsey, it was first fortified as a castle between 1206 and 1256, following the division of the Duchy of Normandy in 1204. In 1339 when a French force captured the island and occupied it for several years, Cornet was besieged, captured and the garrison massacred.
With the advent of cannon and gunpowder, the castle was remodelled between 1545 and 1548. Prof. John Le Patourel, in The Building of Castle Cornet mentions that in 1566, iron and hammers were taken to "Creavissham" (i.e. Crevichon), and that island quarried for the castle.

[DonaCatalina]

Simontornya Castle is a castle in Simontornya, Hungary. The Tower was built in the 13th century by Simon (Son of Salamon) among the swamps of the Sió river, the name Simontornya means Simon's Tower. Nearly all owners of the castle made some alterations throughout the centuries[1]. The Lackfi's built a new gothic wing in the 14th century, altered the old Tower, and added an arcaded loggia to the back-front. After the extinction of the Garai family in 1482, the castle again belonged to Queen Beatrix, wife of Matthias Corvinus.

[DonaCatalina]

Carlow Castle is situated on the banks of the River Barrow near Carlow town centre, in County Carlow, Ireland.
map coordinates 52.836389, -6.935833
It was formerly one of the most impressive Norman castles in Ireland, but only the western wall and two towers survive. The original keep was a three-storey rectangular structure with cylindrical corner towers. It was probably built between 1207 and 1213 by William Marshall on the site of a motte erected by Hugh de Lacy in the 1180s. It may be the earliest example of a four-towered keep in Britain or Ireland. The entrance is at the first-floor level in the north wall and access to all storeys, which had timber floors, was by way of stone stairways in the thickness of the west wall. Ownership of the castle passed to the Crown in 1306 and was later granted to the Earls of Norfolk, who retained it until confiscation in 1537.

[DonaCatalina]

Castle Rushen (Manx: Cashtal Rushen) is a medieval castle located in the Isle of Man's historic capital, Castletown in the south of the island. It towers over the Market Square to the south-east and the harbour to the north-east. The Castle is amongst the best examples of medieval castles on the British Isles,[1] and is still in use as a court house, museum and educational centre.
Construction of the Castle is believed to have begun around the reign of the last Norse kings of Mann Magnus III who died in the Castle in 1265 A.D.,[2] being buried in the nearby Rushen Abbey. The Isle of Man had then been under Norse control since the late 8th century.
map coordinates 54.073769, -4.6529