European tour of castles.

[molly bloom]

Anyone for a crusade against heretics ? Or just don't like the French ?

Bring your mangonels and trebuchets here.

The walled city of Carcassonne, home to the Catharist heresy, on Unesco's world heritage list.

[molly bloom]

The Auld Alliance looks to have encouraged architectural similarities.

Craigievar Castle in Scotland, a fine example of Caledonian baronial, very Disney...

Named after a nearby hill, the present castle was built in 1610 by William Forbes, nicknamed "Danzig Willie" due to his extensive merchant ties to Poland. It is much earlier, (in 1457) that the name of Craigievar Castle first appears in any record, and then it is as the possession of the ancient family of Mortimer, and it is to them that the raising of the original castle is attributed. However in 1610 financial troubles forced the Mortimers to sell the lands of Craigievar along with the unfinished castle, to William Forbes of Menie.

William Forbes, who was the brother of the famous Bishop of Aberdeen, built the castle between 1610 and 1626, and his descendants in the Forbes family occupied the castle until 1963, when it was turned over to the National Trust of Scotland. William was succeeded by his son, also William, who was granted the title of Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1630.

Once Civil War broke out, Sir William was involved in many battles, leading the capture of Harthill Castle in 1640 and being captured (he later escaped) at the battle of Aberdeen in 1644.

The L-shaped castle, despite its peaceful appearance with French and Spanish turrets, was once heavily fortified, with a surrounding wall (now removed) and with a single, heavily defended entrance. The Laird of the castle and his family occupied the top part of the castle, while soldiers and an ever lit kitchen resided in the bottom plan of the castle, allowing heat to rise to the Laird's quarters.

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/4638/craigievar.html

Lovely photograph:

[Thorgal]

Very typical castles. Remembers me Exin Castles.

[jdd2007]

oopz

[Wernazuma III]

I'll go to Carcassonne in some 3 weeks.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
I'll go to Carcassonne in some 3 weeks.

Will you be equipping yourself and family with ballistas, mangonels and trebuchets ?

I see it now- the Ostmark takes Provence, the Ottonian Empire is revived...


The lovely Claypotts Castle, Tayside. You can see the legacy of the fighting in Scotland in the architecture- part home and part defensive structure.

An unusually complete tower house, with circular towers at diagonally opposite corners, corbelled out to form overhanging cap houses. Built about 1569 by John Strachan near Dundee, Claypotts is a wonderful example of the Z-plan Scottish tower (see also Midmar Carstle page). Claypotts was the home of Bonnie Dundee, who raised an army to support James II. When James was deposed by William of Orange, Claypotts was given to the Marquis of Douglas and to his descendents, including the late Lord Home.

http://www.electricscotland.com/historic/tayside.html

http://12.223.136.182/claypotts/

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by molly bloom
the Ostmark

We use to refer to us as FGPOO.

[Bereta_Eder]

very nice contributions molly

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III

We use to refer to us as FGPOO.

Auf Englisch, bitte...

I forgot to ask you- have you read 'Carnival in Romans' or 'Montaillou' by Emmanuel Le Roi Ladurie ?

They deal with life in Dauphine, Provence and the Catharist heresy.

Of course you may just be a bit busy with your holiday preparations, but certainly 'Montaillou' would add a lot of background and historical flavour to your trip.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/BookCatalog/ProductItem.asp?S=&sku=447955&EmailMe=

The cathedral at Albi shows how the church militant in the south of France deserved the name- it looks more like a citadel of the faith, rather than a place of worship.

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/01660/01660m.html

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by molly bloom

Auf Englisch, bitte...

Former German Province of Ostmark. Czechs, Hungarians and other surrounding nations insisted on this name because the use of "Austria" would mean an aggressive expanionist imperialist claim over all of former Austrian territory.

I forgot to ask you- have you read 'Carnival in Romans' or 'Montaillou' by Emmanuel Le Roi Ladurie ?

They deal with life in Dauphine, Provence and the Catharist heresy.

Nope. Most of my knowledge about the Catharan heresy stems from Malcolm Lambert and Umberto Eco.

Of course you may just be a bit busy with your holiday preparations, but certainly 'Montaillou' would add a lot of background and historical flavour to your trip.

Actually, I'm currently busy destroying documents in the Indies Archive in Seville.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/BookCatalog/ProductItem.asp?S=&sku=447955&EmailMe=

I take you get percentage from BLOOMsbury?

The cathedral at Albi shows how the church militant in the south of France deserved the name- it looks more like a citadel of the faith, rather than a place of worship.

Crush the heretics! Kill them all, God will sort out his own! On a more serious note, I don't sympathize with the Cathars (you know, they eat babies ), but I wish the church had rather used the Waldensians to counter the Cathars than Dominicans. Instead, they decided to prosecute Waldensians themselves as heretics...

[lord of the mark]

Castillo San Marco, St. Augustine, Florida


http://www.nps.gov/casa/home/home.htm

Not really a castle, but a Vaubanian fort.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Pekka
Yes I do. There are at least two NICE castles.

One is Suomenlinna, and one is Olavinlinna. They are both famous and nice.

http://www.suomenlinna.fi/index.php?lang=eng

lots of pics, check it out.. cool place.

Olavinlinna:

http://snor.joensuu.fi/olavinlinna/index_english.htm

go to image gallery and click the 'Tutustu' hyperlinks for assorted pics.

Naturally there are bunch of other castles too, but I'd say those are the two nicest ones. IN MY OPINION!

I believe the Swedish monarchy started a major fortification efforct between 1450-1650 so at least a few of those castiles should have survived.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Smiley
And to think that today all that is built are ugly bunkers.

Artillery will make short work of fortresses so bunkers make more military sense.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Starchild


Norwich Castle. The only one ever designed by the ancient Borg.

It looks like just the keep is all that is left. I know that in the UK & Ireland most of the castles had their outer walls torn down after the civil war because the government didn't want people using them as bases as had happened in the civil war.