Castles!- Large Photos

[DonaCatalina]

Chateau du Wangenbourg in the village of Wangenbourg-Engenthal, France. Probably built around 1295, it was in use until after the 16th century. The ruins are very nice, a carved mantel piece with a coat of arms survives. And they are open to the public.

[DonaCatalina]

Krzyztopor castle in Poland.
Exactly when the construction of this impressive fortress began is unknown. Krzysztof Ossoli?ski's father, Jan Zbigniew Ossoli?ski, gave him the village of Ujazd in 1619; however, first documented proof of the construction of the castle comes from 1627, when it was yet incomplete.

[Tammy]

Thank you SO much for this thread. It keeps me in my fairytale daydreams!!

Can you imagine being lucky enough to live near one of these treasures as a child?? My parents would never have seen me!!

Request please....I've had NO luck finding this, so maybe you will. It's a castle in Germany that belongs to the family name SHOOK. I have cousins that still live in this castle, my grandpa was in touch with them...but no one knows how to re-establish communication now.

Thanks!

[DonaCatalina]

Thank you SO much for this thread. It keeps me in my fairytale daydreams!!

Can you imagine being lucky enough to live near one of these treasures as a child?? My parents would never have seen me!!

Request please....I've had NO luck finding this, so maybe you will. It's a castle in Germany that belongs to the family name SHOOK. I have cousins that still live in this castle, my grandpa was in touch with them...but no one knows how to re-establish communication now.

Thanks!

The only castle I could find that belonged to a SHOOK family was in Ireland. Castle Finn on the banks of the Finn River in Ireland. The castle was dismantled in the 19th century?? and the stones used to build the bridge that crosses the river. It is unfortunate that so many castles were destroyed or dismantled as a source of building material for other things. At least this one looks good.

[Tammy]

Thank you SO much for trying!!

[Celtic Lady]

Emma, not trying to be smart or anything but is it possible that the spelling for the last name to be different than Shook? As you had mention the castle is in Germany and my thought was that perhaps it is spelled as Schook. Just a thought.

[DonaCatalina]

Emma, not trying to be smart or anything but is it possible that the spelling for the last name to be different than Shook? As you had mention the castle is in Germany and my thought was that perhaps it is spelled as Schook. Just a thought.

After a lot of looking I found a Schönfeld Castle (Schönfeld, Saxony) that was associated with the name Von Schuck. They did not own the castle but were vassals of Baron Max von Burgk.
Maybe the spelling changed when your ancestors left Germany.

[DonaCatalina]

Castillo de Hornillos de Cerrato is located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. Not much remains of this hilltop fortress.

[captmarga]

The Alhambra (from Arabic ?? = Al-?amr?', literally "the red one"; the complete name was ?? = al-Qal'at al-?amr?' = "the red fortress") is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish rulers of Granada in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed), occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada. [show location on an interactive map] 37°10?37?N 3°35?24?W? / ?37.17686, -3.589901
Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions exhibiting the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th century and later interventions in buildings and gardens that marked its image as it can be seen today. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527.


http://www.cortijovalverde.com/pages/alhambra.htm














From your guest Castelan,

Capt Marga
Everyone have a  very safe and happy Turkey Day!!!

[captmarga]

Berg Eltz or "Eltz Castle"

Curran, my husband, has a liking for German castles, so we go to Elzt!

9th - 13th centuries
The development of castles in the Middle Ages with their beauty and power, which continues to amaze us today, began in the 9th and 10th centuries. Up to that time manor houses were protected with earth walls and wooden palisades. However, from that time on reinforced stone walls were used for the greater security of what were now basic castles. The heyday or height of castle building stretched from the 11th to the 13th centuries, the main period of the imperial family of Hohenstaufen. It was also the time in which many towns were founded. In this eventful age we find the first reference to the name Eltz.

1157
Rudolf zu Eltz was one of the witnesses who signed and he put his seal to a donative deed by Emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa). He lived at that time in a small manor house on the river Elz. Parts of the original structure, such as the late-Romanesque keep Platt-Eltz and the remains of the Romanesque residential houses in the basement of the Kempenich houses, are preserved today. Eltz castle is positioned in a strategically advantageous location: it was built on a road that connected the Mosel - which was always one of the most important trade routes of the German Empire - with the Eifel and the fertile region of Maifeld. The site and its surroundings form a symmetrical unit. The river Eltz flows around three sides of an elliptical rock crag, the foundation of the whole castle, and on this, towering up to 70 metres above the river, is the fortress. The builders took into account the natural conditions of the oval crag and this explains the strange shapes and floor plans of some of the rooms.


1268
Some three generations later the three brothers, Elias, Wilhelm and Theoderich zu Eltz came to a form on separate clans and were obliged to divide up the castle and property. From this point on Eltz Castle was a "Ganerbenburg" (castle of joint heirs), in which several lines of the Eltz family lived together in a "Ganerbengemeinschaft" (a community of joint heirs), a legal form comparable to today's condominium.

1331 - 1336
Eltz castle was not originally conceived as a fortress but served much more as a fortified residence. In contrast to many other German castles it remains in its original unchanged condition. This is the result of adroit family politics and clever diplomacy. With the exception of the "Eltz feud" from 1331-1336 when the Eltz lords together with other free knights resisted the territorial ambitions of the Elector Baldwin of Trier, it never again came to armed conflict.

1472
In the 15th century there was an especially busy flurry of building activity. In 1472 the Rübenach house on the western site was completed under Lancelot and Wilhelm zu Eltz-Rübenach. Incidentally, the name of Eltz-Rübenach goes back to the stewardship of Rübenach near Koblenz which had been acquired by Richard vom Silbernen Löwen (Lion Argent) in 1272. The name is still used today by the Barons of Eltz-Rübenach. With its many cornered, small timber-framed towers resting on two basalt columns over the entrance porch to the house and the delightful late-Gothic chapel, the Rübenach house characterises the architectural variety of the castle courtyard.


http://www.burg-eltz.de/e_index.html


`1920 postcard







From your guest Castelan
Capt Marga

[captmarga]

Drachenfels castle is a castle ruin near Busenberg in the Palatinate Forest in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on and inside a sandstone rock in 368m height. Literally translated the name means Dragons Rock. It is unknown when the castle was built, but the keepers, the gents of Drachenstein where first documentally mentioned in 1209.



http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/rhein/drach.html









Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend,
from your guest Castelan,

Capt Marga

[Tammy]

Emma, not trying to be smart or anything but is it possible that the spelling for the last name to be different than Shook? As you had mention the castle is in Germany and my thought was that perhaps it is spelled as Schook. Just a thought.

After a lot of looking I found a Schönfeld Castle (Schönfeld, Saxony) that was associated with the name Von Schuck. They did not own the castle but were vassals of Baron Max von Burgk.
Maybe the spelling changed when your ancestors left Germany.

Thank you ladies. Yes, Celtic Lady...that's always possible.
DonaCatalina, I would like to Thank you again for your searching. I'm now going to do some research in family history and see what I can find there.

[captmarga]

King Lewis the Bavarian erected Pfalzgrafenstein Castle from 1326/27 as a customs toll castle on a rock in the Rhine.

The oldest part of the structure is the pentagonal tower in the castle courtyard with its apex facing upstream.

The 12 metre high hexagonal ring wall with its defensive passageway and corner turrets was constructed a few years later.

The second defensive passage, the gun bastion facing upstream and the elegant tower cap are reconstruction's from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the late Middle Ages, Pfalzgrafenstein, together with Gutenfels Castle and the fortified town of Kaub, formed a powerful military barrier in the Rhine valley; nowadays it is part of a landscape of particular beauty.

Strangely, there seem to be few if any photos of the interiors.  Some sites say it may now be a gift shop.







Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Thank you to all (and especially Dona Catalina)
from your guest Castelan
Capt. Marga

[DonaCatalina]

Thank you CaptMarga for a some wonderful castles! Berg Eltz certainly is an eye-popper, isn't it?
But now we're going back to Scotland for the first of December.
Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe. The Castle was historically a Campbell stronghold but is likely to have been built on an earlier McGregor of Glenstrae site. The McGregors were the dominant clan in the area until being eclipsed by the Campbells. There is a legend of a McGregor Piper that haunts the castle.

[DonaCatalina]

Castle Horn near Limburg.
Horn Castle is a late type of motte castle, built near to an earlier bed of the river Maas. The name Horn already appears in the 12th century.