Castles!- Large Photos

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

The featured castle for November 28 is;

Safita
Map coordinates ( 34°49?N 36°07?E )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safita






'Burj Safita' which means Safita Tower was built by the Knights Templar- Chastel Blanc, during the Crusades upon prior fortifications. Constructed on the middle hill of Safita's three hills, it offers a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, and was a major part of the network of Crusader fortifications in the area. From the roof, one can see from the Mediterranean Sea to the snow-covered mountains of Lebanon, and Tripoli.

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Thank you all for the special privilege, we now return you to the unrivalled talents of our regularly scheduled Castellan, the Lady DonaCatalina.

[DonaCatalina]

Thank you Warrior Monk. You did show some very interesting castles to us.
Komotin Castle is a castle in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
map coordinates 44.405556, 17.318056
Komotin is believed to have been built in the early 14th century. Though not substantiated, it possibly was abandoned during Ottoman occupation because of the Black Death.

[DonaCatalina]

Asenova Krepost is a medieval fortress in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains.
map coordinates 41.986667, 24.873333
The earliest archaeological findings date from the time of the Thracians. Asenova was considerably modernized in 1231, during the rule of Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II.

[DonaCatalina]

Wernigerode Castle is a castle located in the Harz mountains above the town of Wernigerode, Germany.
map coordinates 51.830278, 10.795
The first mention of the Saxon noble Adalbert of Haimar, Count of Wernigerode, in a 1121 deed. The counts built the castle on a slope south of the town as their residence, that was first mentioned as a castrum in 1213.

[DonaCatalina]

Gymnich Castle is a moated castle of Erftaue in Gymnich, Germany.
Map coordinates 50.842383, 6.743510There were fortifications mentioned as early as 1121, but the first permanent castle was probably founded in 1354 by Henry I Gymnich.

[DonaCatalina]

San Felipe del Morro, or Morro Castle (Spanish: Castillo San Felipe del Morro) is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
map coordinates 18.471111, -66.124167
Named in honor of King Philip II of Spain, San Felipe was built 1538-39. Emperor Charles V ordered its construction to protect the harbor.

[DonaCatalina]

Kyrenia Castle is at the east end of the old harbour in Kyrenia, Cyprus.
map coordinates 35.341389, 33.322222
Research carried out at the site suggests that the Byzantines built the original castle in the 7th Century to guard the city against the new Arab maritime threat. The first historical reference to the castle occurs in 1191, when King Richard Couer de Lion of England captured it on his way to the Third Crusade.

[DonaCatalina]

Le Destroit is a ruined medieval fortress, located near the town of Atlit, Israel.
map coordinates 32.707778, 34.946111
Le Destriot was built soon after King Baldwin I conquered Caesarea in May 1101.
Source:The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A-K ... By Denys Pringle.

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

The awareness of Atlit (Le Destroit) begins in 1187, when the Crusaders lost Jerusalem to Saladin. The Grand Master of the Templars thus had to leave his palace on the Temple Mount (the Omayyad Dome of the Rock), from which the Order took its name, and the Templars had to build new quarters at Akko, Atlit and elsewhere. The castle which they built at Atlit in 1218 was given the name of Castrum Peregrinorum or
... More >
Château des Pèlerins (Castle of the Pilgrims); the name Atlit dates from a later period.

After the unsuccessful attack on Damietta in the Nile delta (1249) the French king Louis IX stayed for some time in Acre (Akko) and Atlit. Atlit was attacked by the Arabs for the first time in 1265. The outlying districts were destroyed and the Templars were required to pay tribute to the Arabs, though they were allowed to retain possession of the castle. In 1291, however, Sultan Melik el-Ashraf stormed Acre, capital of the Christian kingdom. This was the end of the Crusader state, though a few strongholds still held out for a short time, among them Tortosa (Tartus in Syria) and Atlit. After the fall of Tortosa on August third 1291 the Templars decided to return to France, and in the middle of August they evacuated the Castle of the Pilgrims.

In later centuries the castle fell into decay, though considerable remains were left even after an earthquake in 1837. In 1898, when the German Emperor William II called in at Atlit on his way from Haifa to Jerusalem, the only inhabitants were two Arab families. The land round Atlit was owned by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who initiated the development of the area. In 1903 he founded the Arab village of Atlit 1km/0.75mi south of the castle, and in 1911 Aaron Aaronsohn established an experimental agricultural station in an area of marshland, where salt was produced by the evaporation of sea-water. (Most of the salt consumed in Israel now comes from here.) Since 1948 many immigrants have settled in Atlit. During the Second World War the British authorities used the ruins of Atlit as a camp for German and Italian prisoners of war, and after the war for illegal Jewish immigrants. In 1956 and 1967 Egyptian prisoners were confined here.

The Crusader castle occupies a rectangular area measuring 200m/220yds by 450m/490yds on a rocky peninsula projecting westward into the sea. The entrance is at the east end. In front of it was an outlying settlement, partly excavated before 1938. The castle itself is defended by a ditch (cut through a Phoenician cemetery) and by a stout double wall. On the inner wall is the principal tower or keep, El-Karnifeh, built of massive square blocks with quoins of dressed stone. Adjoining this tower is the chapterhouse, which is preserved to the springing of the vaulting, borne on consoles with saints' heads. At the west end of the castle, where steps run down to the landing-stage, can be seen the foundations of the octagonal Templar church. Like other Templar churches, it was a small-scale copy of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Unusually, the altar stood not in an apse but in the center of the church.

[DonaCatalina]

Bryn Bras Castle is a Grade II* Listed Building, in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales.
map coordinates 53.1404, -4.1791
The Castle was built in the Neo-Romanesque style on an earlier structure that dated from the 11th centiury. The castle has rooms available to stay in. Check out the drive on Google Earth streetview.

[Welsh Wench]

Thank you, Dona Catalina!

How green was my valley, eh? It looks like Robin Hood could be there. 

[DonaCatalina]

Drumcollogher Castle, now known as Springfiled Castle is located near Drumcollogher, Ireland.
map coordinates 52.341638, -8.915267
The castle was built here in 1280 when the Norman Fitzgeralds came to Ireland.
Today the castle is the Home of Lord and Lady Muskerry who lease portions as a holiday rental.

[Lady Rebecca]

Thank you! Maybe someday I'll be rich enough to stay in a castle...

[DonaCatalina]

Kenfig Castle is a ruined castle in Bridgend County Borough in Wales.
map coordinates 51.5303, -3.73
An early reference to a castle at Kenfig can be found in 1080, when Iestyn ap Gwrgan was said to have refortified it. By the late fifteenth century both town and castle had been abandoned because of encroaching sand dunes.