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Castles That Will Inspire and Haunt You
Arguably born the day that villagers -- and the people who profited off them --
decided that wood wasn’t strong enough to keep them safe, castles quickly became
more than just edifices dedicated to security. Instead of repelling borders,
real or imaginary, castles became THE status symbol of status symbols. Monuments
to bravado, they were stone and mortal proclamations to the age-old idea that
"mine is bigger than yours."
If you want an picture-postcard example of a castle, you don’t have to go
anywhere but the Château de Pierrefonds in France. Although it may have started
out as a structure designed to keep some folks out and others safely in, it was
later partially sugar frosted by none other than Napoleon the 3rd, who was
shooting for a true nobility status symbol: a iced cake that no one but the very
rich and very privileged could eat.
(image credit: Frédéric Lavaux)
Pierrefonds is still a beautiful place, even if its fortifications were overly
gilded –- or maybe because of it. It’s no wonder it's used to this day when
central casting gets a call for a classic castle.
(photos by Ralph Gant and Benoit Stordeur, see more)
When fairy tale jumps from a landscape and hits you between the eyes
If you want a real Disney, fairy-tale, and totally insane castle, you have to
visit the residence of one totally insane German king, namely Ludwig II of
Bavaria. Look up gaudy in the dictionary and there’s a picture of his castle:
Neuschwanstein ("The New Swan Rock").
Neuschwanstein Castle, gracing ten million over-saturated postcards and jigsaw
puzzles, (image credits unknown)
Glitzed and filigreed, Neuschwanstein is like Ludwig’s twisted brain turned
inside out and realized in stone and brick. It is also sublime and splendid,
over-the-top and strangely fragile - all at the same time. We are going to
devote a special article to it, truly a place not of this world.
photos by Avi Abrams
Monstrous chandelier? Check. Room made to look like a cavern? It’s there. Entire
rooms dedicated to Wagner (with whom Ludwig was obsessed)? Absolutely. It’s all
there, larger and more ornate than any life … unless, of course, you were the
King of Bavaria.
The Coral Castle - Nobody knows how it was built
One of my favorite castles, though, wasn’t the dream of a king realized in stone
and mortar. Spurned at the altar back in his native Latvia, Edward Leedskalnin
took his disappointment, and a case of tuberculosis, to Florida in 1923. There,
in the land of oranges and sunshine, Leedskalnin began to build his very own
castle, one he worked on until his death in 1951 (more info)
(image credit: sarahmizoo)
(images credit: Jim)
It’s still there and definitely worth seeing. It might not have the polish of
Pierrefonds or the glimmer of Neuschwanstein, but Rock Gate Park, as he called
it, is still a striking sight: monstrous slabs of coral skillfully balanced and
beautifully positioned, all of them assembled without reinforcement or mortar.
He spent over 28 years building the Coral Castle, refusing to allow anyone to
view while he worked.
(The Throne Room, supposed to depict the Moon and the planets - photo by Claudia
Domenig)
Leedskalnin’s construction genius is legendary. No one quite understands how he
built his castle and then moved it ten miles away in 1936. Some people think he
used a kind of perpetual motion machine or mystical methods to move his
several-ton blocks. Whatever the means, his Coral Castle, is still a magnificent
achievement -– the sublime result of his own two hands, his incredible
inventiveness, and a tragically broken heart.
Portmeirion: a surreal village in Gwynedd, Wales
Stepping away from literal castles, but staying within the theme of very special
men and the homes they created, one of the most beautiful is one you might not
know the name of but one you’d recognize immediately. All I need to write is
"You are Number 6."
(image credit: Richard Hagen)
Located in Wales, Portmeirion was created by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in 1925
(though some of it wasn’t finished until 1975). Although Sir Williams-Ellis
wasn’t a king, he was obviously knighted, and certainly had help with his
remarkable residence. Portmeirion deserves to stand with Ludwig’s vision of
Germanic paradise and Leedskalnin’s eccentric coral castle because of its
unique, and spectacularly beautiful, vision.
(image credit: Gavin D. J. Harper)
Williams-Ellis was so dedicated to preserving the tranquil elegance of
Portmeirion that the filming location of Patrick McGoohan’s "The Prisoner"
wasn’t revealed until the final episode of the series. Even with the careful
hiding of the village’s identity, anyone who knew anything about architecture
would have recognized the Williams-Ellis’s pearl-white cottages and the
legendary green dome where, in "The Prisoner", the village’s rotating Number 2s
had their office.
(image credit: Matt Buck)
Portmeirion is truly a beautiful place and completely unspoiled by its
television appearance. It remains today just as Williams-Ellis intended it to
be: a tranquil village with a tasteful dusting of nostalgia.
The Postman's Palace - another single-handedly built castle
Ferdinand Cheval has imagined his "Ideal Palace" and simply went on to built it
- after all, why not? He spent 33 years with this project (located in the
village of Hauterives in the picturesque Drôme region of Southern France) - but
the results are nothing less than stunning:
(photos by Emmanuel Georges, Eric Devlies, Francerama)
Initially considered "the village idiot", he was suddenly hailed as a genius and
a celebrity in France, upon completion of this intricate affair. But is it the
"Ideal Palace"? Everyone seems to have a different opinion. More info and images
are on this page.
Whether it's the gussied-up fortresses like Pierrefonds, the gilded dreams of a
mad king like Neuschwanstein, the eccentric genius of Leedskalnin and his Coral
Castle, or the whimsical grace of Williams-Ellis’s Portmeirion and Ferdinand
Cheval's Palace, a man’s home can really be his castle.
More Fantastic Castles, to Visit and to Think About (Wistfully)
Eltz Castle, Germany: another fairy-tale location, this time completely
surrounded (and in certain degree concealed) by the forest:
(image credit: frizztext, see more)
Germany (just like Switzerland and Austria) has many enchanting castles, big and
small -
Castle-like mansion in Arnsberg and a large Buerresheim Castle, photos by
frizztext
The stretch of Rhein between Cologne and Mainz has the especially high
concentration of great fortresses, presiding over the quaint riverside villages:
This is a great site listing all the castles
Egeskov Castle, Denmark:
(image credit: Malene Thyssen)
Eastern Europe abounds in awesome castles. This is for example, Castle in Moszna,
Poland:
Check out the sinister door handle from the Dracula's Bran Castle on the bottom
right. Towers emerging from the mist in the photo below: this is Bragança, a
walled town in northern Portugal. Very evocative image on the bottom left is Le
Chateau de Nyon in Nyon, Switzerland:
(originals unknown)
The Chittorgarh Fort in India. This pool was often the only source of water
during the numerous sieges by Mughal Emperors:
(image via)
Nestled in High Places:
The way to the Guaita Fortress in San Marino (more info) -
Try not to think of "Myst" and "Riven" while looking at the above picture...
Here is the high cliff on which the fortress stands:
(image credit: Ricardo André Frantz)
Overlooking the Echaz Valley and the storybook village below, often shrouded in
fog, Lichtenstein Castle comes close to being the perfect castle in Europe.
(image credit: Andreas Tille)
The Abandoned Castle in Rural Italy
Oh yes, still unclaimed by some luxury developer, nor touched by multi-million
renovation... hiding in a valley in a tangled forest: Castello di Zena:
(here is a Google Earth location, but don't set your hopes too high - this is a
guarded private property)
(image credit: cyberbiscottato)
A mystery. Falling to pieces. Splendor in the grass.
A View That Launched 10,000 Epic Fantasy Books
Another feature of fortified high places is the splendid view they often afford.
We'd like to open up a sort of competition: The Best View From a Castle, but the
winner already easily comes to mind - and it's the Neuschwanstein's Castle,
again. The panorama of the towering Alps and a nestled gem of the lake, Alpsee,
is enough to make you sigh and close your eyes... dreaming.
Photo by Avi Abrams
The ultimate castle, that was ever designed to grace the face of the Earth
King Ludwig, again. The planned Falkenstein - truly THE Lost Castle. The one
that he was all set to build - but for the financial (and mental) meltdown he
suffered.
Christian Jank's first High Gothic design for Falkenstein, 1883.
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