European tour of castles.

[Winston]

Frederiksborg Palace, Hillerød, Denmark. Largest Renaissance castle in Northern Europe, built 1560-1620. Now serves as the Museum of National History.

[Immortal Wombat]

Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy and Caernarfon in Wales.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Wycoff
How about Neuschwanstein.

Pseudo-romanticistic/pseudo-medieval stuff.
(although it was rebuild on the ruins of a medieval castle)

I've never understood how Versailles qualifies as a castle anyway. Its more like a palace, just like the Winter Palace in St.Petersburg

Yep. Spiff you're out. Castle-heretic.

Cool castles in no particular order:

Tomar (Portugal)
Kerak (Jordan, and not to be confused with the even more famous "Krak des Chevaliers" in Syria.... umm....topic....let's say this is all greater Europe )
Marienburg (Poland, already mentioned)
Wartburg (Germany, think Luther)
Prag (already mentioned too)
Tower in London (nobody mentioned it yet )
...and probably lots of others

[Ecthy]

Do you mean medieval castles or baroque like castles?

For medieval the best ones have been posted already, though I'd expect the baltic countries to feature some more of those.

As far as early modern castles/palaces are concerned, Potsdam has several of them. They're all a bit tacky though, which should be a given for this kind of castle anyway.

[MOBIUS]

In just a little over a week I will be...

Here

Here

Here

and

Here

Caernarfon, Harlech, Conwy and Beaumaris in North Wales are the four UNESCO World Heritage sites of Edward I's attempt to subjugate the Welsh in the 13th century...

My locals are Cardiff, Castell Coch and Caerphilly, these are all within about 10 miles of where I live.

They say Wales has the highest concentration of castles in the world with something like 400 of them in such a small area! It's because we're all naughty and won't do as we're told...

Outside those, the best I've been to are probably Dover Castle in Kent, St Michael's Mount in Cornwall (by the same guys who built Mont Saint Michel), The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the walled town and castle of Rhodes, the fortifications of Valetta (Both Knights Hospitaller) and the Alhambra in Granada.

Leeds Castle is totally overrated!

Prague castle is just a glorified residence - very nice though, don't get me wrong!

And my all time top of the wishlists is Krak des Chevaliers, the Crusaders castle in Syria - which I will probably do some time in 2006...

Yes, I do like the odd castle...

[Timexwatch]

The Alhambra in Grenada

[Micha]

Don´t bother with the Wartburg. Sure, Luther´s been there. But other than that, it is a mediocre castle. Much better to visit:

Carcassonne (Southern France)
Königstein (Germany, south of Dresden)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles

[Ecthy]

The only bad thing about Königstein is when you walk up there you ought to go thousands of stairs.

[alva]

So...no pics of American castles then?

[Ecthy]

hah! they do got forts though. TEH ALAMO!!!

[VetLegion]

What is the difference between palace, fort and castle anyway? Many have been a combination.

[Ecthy]

Yes. What I hate most is the fact the English use the word castle where we can say Schloss or Burg, with the connotation being the early modern palace and the medieval stone fort respectively. Stupid English.

[VetLegion]

Cannibals too. They consider Hamburger a good thing to eat

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Yes. What I hate most is the fact the English use the word castle where we can say Schloss or Burg, with the connotation being the early modern palace and the medieval stone fort respectively. Stupid English.

Newcastle.
Edinburgh.

Je reste ma valise monsieur.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Je reste ma valise monsieur.