Unusual and Spectacular Castles

[Arslan]

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 Ch�teau 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.

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.

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").

[Arslan]

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.

Christian Jank's first High Gothic design for Falkenstein, 1883.

[Arslan]

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.

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)

[Sadaf Gondal]

teek hai

[Hijaab]

v nice.

[~*guria*~]

nice sharing