Outrageous Beauty of Medieval Castles

[+OverSword]

Outrageous Beauty of Medieval Castles

[FollowTheTrail]

nice!

[George Ford]

Castles are so awesome, but a bugger to heat in the winter!

[Lioness_Heart]

So cool! Thanks for posting!

[CatFromHell]

Nice, Went on holiday last week and I went to Bamburgh Castle which was mentioned in the article, It was awesome, Didn't like the prices in the gift shop though.

[Michelle]

I can't imagine wearing all the huge garb women used to wear trying to get up those tiny winding stairways. I'd break my neck...they don't call me Grace for nothing.

[bubblykiss]

I like to think of them both as stationary killing machines and monuments for projecting outward, taxable power onto the country side.

Just remember Lawrence of Arabia, who was brutally raped by the Turkish officer in WWI, was ostentatiously in the holy land to study crusader castles.

[lightly]

thanks for the Spectacular tour OverSword . I mainly just looked at the pictures ... Awesome cribs!

I'd guess that some of the interiors were quite lavish and decorative? In movies they tend to show castles in the state that we find most of them today ... but i bet they weren't all so bleak?

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

thanks for the Spectacular tour OverSword . I mainly just looked at the pictures ... Awesome cribs!

I'd guess that some of the interiors were quite lavish and decorative? In movies they tend to show castles in the state that we find most of them today ... but i bet they weren't all so bleak?

Quite near to where I grew up you find this castle. It is certainly not a bleak place.

By the way this castle is VERY famous, but can anyone tell me why ?

[+OverSword]

Quite near to where I grew up you find this castle. It is certainly not a bleak place.

By the way this castle is VERY famous, but can anyone tell me why ?

Because David Hasselhoff spends his holiday there?

[bubblykiss]

Because David Hasselhoff spends his holiday there?

While he is good he will never be this good;

[+OverSword]

While he is good he will never be this good;

http://youtu.be/4pIc6-vO1l4?t=1m22s

Dude! NONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the hell?

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

Because David Hasselhoff spends his holiday there?

I hope not !

The reason why the castle is famous is because it is the setting of Shakespears Hamlet !

[Ealdwita]

My 'local' castle.........

Leeds Castle, near Maidstone Kent. Built in 1119 as a Norman stronghold and subsequently used by Henry VIII as a residence for his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Said to be the most beautiful castle in England.

[bubblykiss]

Dude! NONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the hell?

I know, it is sooooo good that you are overwhelmed by joy and delight.

Did you enjoy the part where he laughs in the most creepy way humanly possible behind the women in the band?

[bubblykiss]

My 'local' castle.........

Leeds Castle, near Maidstone Kent. Built in 1119 as a Norman stronghold and subsequently used by Henry VIII as a residence for his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Said to be the most beautiful castle in England.

I could see myself projecting military power and civil terror onto the tax burdened peasants from that masterpiece.

But, then again, most of my dreams seem to be about oppressing the many diverse types of British peasants from a castle stronghold.

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

I could see myself projecting military power and civil terror onto the tax burdened peasants from that masterpiece.

But, then again, most of my dreams seem to be about oppressing the many diverse types of British peasants from a castle stronghold.

Follow you dream my friend !

PS: Can I be one of your henchmen ? I am a Dane and we have hundreds of years of practice in oppressing peasants in Britain. Where do you thnk the Normans originally came from ?

[Peter B]

I visited a few castles when I visited the UK *cough!*22 years*cough!* ago. I was most impressed by the size of Caerphilly Castle, and thought that Bodiam Castle was one of the most perfectly formed.

What surprised me on reading about them was how few people were needed to successfully garrison a well built castle. Not that a small garrison could survive against a determined assault, but that only a few people were needed to keep a castle secure against anything except a major attack...and if a major attack was in the offing, there'd be enough warning to strengthen the garrison.

I also remember seeing a show a year or so ago about a range of castles. One they examined was Chateau Gaillard in France, built on top of a rocky outcrop above a river bend on the orders of the English King Richard I. Perhaps a little provocatively he had it built on French land, but he was at war with King Philip Augustus of France. Although it was a stunningly impressive castle, Philip Augustus dismissed it saying he could take it even if it was made of iron, to which Richard replied that he could hold it even if it was made of butter, which goes to show that even in the 12th century people could come up with snappy one-liners. They were both right - it remained in English hands while Richard was alive, and then the French captured it from Richard's successor King John. Apparently it had been built quickly and more than a little shoddily, and Philip's men found and exploited a weakness.

It's also perhaps not surprising, given how common castles are in Europe, that they feature in a lot of stories of medieval times, and in fantasy literature too. There's nothing like a castle siege to provide the climax to a good sword 'n' sorcery novel.

[Keel M.]

A lot of good information, not the best written, but people don't seem to care about that anymore.

There was at least one or two in that list of pics I'd never heard of before. The information itself was not new to me.

[Ealdwita]

I could see myself projecting military power and civil terror onto the tax burdened peasants from that masterpiece.

But, then again, most of my dreams seem to be about oppressing the many diverse types of British peasants from a castle stronghold.

Follow you dream my friend !

PS: Can I be one of your henchmen ? I am a Dane and we have hundreds of years of practice in oppressing peasants in Britain. Where do you thnk the Normans originally came from ?

There's absolutely no need of your participation, thank you gentlemen.......Our own government and the EUSSR are doing all the oppression necessary!

[Parsec]

Thank you OverSword, really beautiful castles.

I agree with Child of Bast, the infos weren't so precise, but overall ok.

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I've noticed that among all those castles, there wasn't a single Italian one.

So, let me share with you some of our beauties (you probably already know some of them, others I'm quite positive you've never heard of):

Castel Beseno, Rovereto

Castel Toblino, Trento

Castello di Salorno, Salorno

Castello Miramare, Trieste

Castello di Torrechiara, Parma

Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Castello di Saint-Pierre, Aosta

Castello Scaligero, Sirmione

Castel del Monte, Andria

Edited August 29, 2014 by Saru
Removed copyrighted images