Travels and Trips

Thoughts about travel memories through Arts, History and Nature.

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This Scottish castle is full of ghosts

Duntulm Castle is a ruined ancient fortress near the village of Trotternish on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. It is believed to have been an Iron Age fort originally known as Dún Dhaibidh (David's Fort in Gaelic). In the late Viking period, it was fortified by the Norse who settled in the Outer Hebrides, and later by one of the clans that became the owners of the island, the Macleods of Skye.

In the early 17th century, Trotternish was under the control of the MacLeods' rivals in Skye, the MacDonalds of Sleat. They appear to have made several improvements to the castle, and it is possible that much of the structure recorded in the late 19th century, apart from the keep, dates from this period.

The MacDonalds abandoned the castle around 1730 in favour of nearby Monkstadt House and then Armadale Castle in Sleat. Some say this was after a nurse accidentally dropped the chief's young son from a castle window onto the cliffs. The ghost of the nurse, murdered in revenge, is still said to haunt the ruins, and the child's cries can be heard. Apparently, she is accompanied by the ghost of Hugh MacDonald, who conspired against the rightful chief in the 17th century and starved to death in the dungeons of Duntulm.

The MacDonalds of Sleat were created baronets in 1625, and some of their heirs fought in England in 1651 and fought in the Jacobite risings of 1689 and 1715, which sought to restore Scottish independence.

Earlier, Hugh MacDonald was imprisoned and starved to death in a dungeon at Duntulm after attempting to seize the lands of Trotternish by murdering his kinsmen, having been captured after fleeing to Dun an Sticer in North Uist. He was given only salt beef and no water, and died delirious: his ghostly moans are also said to be heard in the ruins of Duntulm.

Among the early lords of the castle is a Donald Gorm who was succeeded by his son, also called Donald Gorm, who was succeeded by his son, also called Donald Gorm. He, in turn, was succeeded by his nephew, another Donald Gorm. From Duntulm you can reach Caisteal Uisdean (Hugh's Castle), a few miles south of Uig. Hugh was a cousin of one of the Donald Gorms and built his castle without doors or windows, with the only access being through the roof.

When the castle was finished, Hugh wrote to his cousin inviting him to the inauguration. He also wrote to Martin, with whom he arranged to have Donald murdered during his visit. But Hugh confused the two letters and exchanged them. Learning of his cousin's plan, Donald Gorm sent his armies to besiege Caisteal Uisdean.

Furthermore, this Donald Gorm was married to Margaret, sister of Rory Mór MacLeod of Dunvegan. Margaret had lost an eye and Donald Gorm took a dislike to her for it. Finally, he sent her back to her brother on a one-eyed horse, accompanied by a one-eyed man and a one-eyed dog. And this insult gave rise to the Cogadh na Cailliche Caime (the war of the one-eyed woman).

The story goes that the weeping of the unfortunate Margaret can still be heard in the castle, another of the ghosts that haunt the place. The castle seems to be a very busy place at night, as it is said that many groans can be heard coming from the dungeons, while on a misty night a procession of skirted warriors can be seen preparing for battle. However, it is more likely that the groan heard most frequently is that of the wind.

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A strong castle for Kings and Bishops

The first written mention of Kuressaare Castle dates back to the 1380s, although some sources date the construction of the castle and its adjacent monastery to 1341. Since the inhabitants of the island of Saaremaa (called Ösel in German and Swedish) at that time fiercely resisted Christianization, sometimes even resorting to violent uprisings, this castle was part of the efforts of the Teutonic Knights and the bishops of Ösel-Wieck to gain control of the island.

The fortress remained in the possession of the bishops until the Reformation and was one of the most important castles in the entire diocese until then. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the diocese, the island of Ösel, and therefore the castle, came under the rule of the King of Denmark. The new rulers began to modernize the fortifications. After the Peace of Brömsebro and the end of the war between Sweden and Denmark-Norway from 1643 to 1645, the so-called Torstensson War, control of the entire island, and therefore the castle, passed into Swedish hands, who continued to modernize it until 1706.

After the end of the Great Northern War, the island and the castle became part of the Russian Empire. With the changes in the borders of the Tsarist dominions, the fortress lost its importance. This became especially evident after the Finnish War and the Third Partition of Poland. With the construction of the Bomarsund Fortress on the Åland Islands, the Russian garrison of Saaremaa moved there. However, its use as an administrative center continued.

With the end of the first Estonian independence and the beginning of the Soviet occupation, the castle was once again used as a fortress and prison. During this period, approximately 80 civilians were executed on the castle grounds. During the Nazi occupation, over 300 people were executed there.

Kuressaare Castle, along with Hermann Castle in Narva, is considered one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in Estonia. Unlike Hermann Castle, which suffered extensive damage during World War II, Kuressaare Castle required extensive restoration. The castle is built in the late Gothic style and is characterized by its simple design. The defensive tower in the northern corner reaches a height of 37 meters.

The central element of the ground floor is the so-called convent building; this 43-meter-long square section of the building contains the cloister and courtyard. The cloister provides access to all the main rooms. The castle cellar is located under the convent building. It housed the storerooms and an ingenious hypocaust heating system, which heated the refectory and the bishop's quarters with hot air. Above the southern corner of the convent building is the bishop's castle chapel.

In the late 14th century, the complex was extended with a 625-meter-long wall. Improvements in firearms between the 16th and 17th centuries led to the expansion of the complex with additional defensive structures. The Swedish field marshal and fortress architect Erik Dahlberg played a key role in the reconstruction. He closely followed the style of the French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in his construction plans.

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A castle coveted by warrior monks

Kaunas Castle (Kauno pilis in Lithuanian) is the oldest stone castle in Lithuania. It is located in Kaunas, the country's second-largest city, at the confluence of the Memel and Neris rivers, in the town's old town.

The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1361. It held an important strategic position, as it blocked a possible invasion of Lithuania and its capital, Vilnius. For this reason, the castle was attacked several times by the crusaders of the Teutonic Order.

Wigand von Marburg, a Prussian diplomat for the Teutonic Order, wrote in a chronicle that Kaunas Castle was built of brick, had high walls, strong towers on the outer defensive wall, and was surrounded by ramps and moats.

In one of the most intense attacks by the Teutonic knights, the castle was defended by a large number of well-armed Lithuanian fighters, led by Vaidotas, son of Prince Kęstutis. However, they only managed to capture the castle after fierce fighting that lasted for almost a month. Vaidotas died defending it.

A document from 1401 issued by Grand Duke Vytautas, Vaidotas's brother, states that Vytautas had entrusted the administration of the present-day Belarusian city of Navahrudak to his brothers Vaidotas and Tautvilas Kęstutaitis in equal parts.

Vaidotas is often confused with Vaidutis, son of Butautas and grandson of Kęstutis. An additional confusion is introduced by the 16th-century Chronicle of Bykhovets, which states that Vaidotas died in Lithuania in his youth.

The Polish historian Jan Tęgowski established that Vaidotas was the eldest son of Kęstutis and Birutė; that he was captured in Kaunas in 1362, but returned before 1365 and received Navahrudak; that he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and was baptized as Ivan; that he had two sons, Jerzy and Konrad; that in 1384, during the Lithuanian Civil War (1381-1384), he accompanied Vytautas to the Teutonic Order; and that he died after 1390.

The fact is that around 1362, the Teutonic Knights had taken the castle and of the 400 defenders, only 36 survived. It subsequently fell again into Lithuanian hands and in 1384, again into Teutonic hands. At that time, Grand Master Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein began its reconstruction and renamed it Marienwerder.

The presence of the knights in Kaunas threatened the entire defensive system of castles along the Nemunas River. Faced with this situation, the Lithuanians attacked the castle later that same year, retook it, and began reinforcing its defenses by widening and raising its walls.

After the first Battle of Grünwald (1410), also called the Battle of Zalgiris and Tannenberg, where the alliance between Poland and Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Order, the castle became a residence and administrative center, heralding the birth of the Commonwealth of Both Nations, which lasted until the end of the 18th century, when the Napoleonic Wars shook the borders of all of Europe.

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The Ukrainian multinational fortress

The origins of the current fortress of Khotyn (wierdza w Chocimiu, in Polish, Hotin Kalesi, in Turkish, and Cetatea Hotinului, in Romanian), go back to the 10th century, when Prince Vladimir I had it built as one of the border fortifications of the border fortifications subject to the region currently known as Bucovina under his control.

The fortress, which later became a bastion, was located on important trade routes that connected Scandinavia and Kiev with the Euxine Bridge, Podolia and the Genovese and Greek colonies on the Black Sea through the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, on the so-called "trade route of the Varangians" towards Greece.

Built on a rocky terrain formed on the upper right bank of the Dnieper, it was initially simply a huge hill of earth with walls and wooden defenses. It had the purpose of protecting the village of Khotyn on the other side of the river. The first stone structure was fairly small. It was located exactly where the north tower is today. Over the centuries, the fortress was destroyed, rebuilt and expanded on several occasions.

At the end of the XI century, the fortress belonged to the Principality of Terebovlia. In the 1140s, it became part of the Principality of Galicia and, in 1199, of the Principality of Galicia-Volinia.

Between 1250 and 1264, Prince Danylo of Galicia and his son Lev rebuilt the fortress. They built a stone wall half a meter thick and a pit 6 meters wide around it. New military buildings were also built in the northern part. In the second half of the 13th century, it was rebuilt by the Genovese.

In the 1340s, the fortress was captured by the Moldavian prince Dragoş, a vassal of the Kingdom of Hungary. After 1375, belonging to the Principality of Moldavia. Under the reign of Alexandru cel Bun and, later, Stefan cel Mare, the old stone fortress was rebuilt and considerably expanded to reach its current form.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, the fortress served as a residence for Moldavian princes. In 1476, the garrison successfully defended it against the Turkish army of Sultan Mehmed II. At the end of the sixteenth century, Moldavia became a tributary principality of the Ottoman Empire. From then on, a unit of Janissaries was stationed in the fortress together with the Moldavian troops. During this period, the Turks expanded and fortified the fortress.

The fortress was captured in 1538 by the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian confederation under the command of Jan Amor Tarnowski. The troops undermined the walls of the fortress, destroying three towers and part of the western wall. After its capture, the citadel of Khotyn was renovated between 1540 and 1544.

In 1615, the Polish army reconquered Khotyn, but in 1617 it returned to the Turks. In 1620, the city was reconquered by the Poles. In the fall of 1621, the Polish-Lithuanian army, under the command of Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny, successfully repulsed the army of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II in the Battle of Khotyn.

The 18th century saw how the fortress changed hands successively between Poles - allied with Cossacks or Lithuanians - and Turks. Until the Ottomans suffered the rise of the Russian Empire, who took it away on a couple of occasions to return it through two peace treaties, until the Russo-Turkish war of 1806-1812 made Khotyn definitively remain in Russian hands. In 1856 he lost his military status.

Later, with the Bolshevik Revolution and the two World Wars, the region successively fell into Romanian hands, the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, to end up being annexed to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, predecessor of the current Ukrainian state.

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A Serbian fortress on the Hungarian-Ottoman borders

On the banks of the Danube, where the great European river narrows before opening into the Iron Gates, stands the imposing Golubac fortress. Its stone towers, set into a cliff in eastern Serbia, have for centuries guarded one of the most strategic river routes in Europe. The history of this fortress is, in fact, the history of a changing border between empires, religions and civilizations.

Golubac’s origins date back to antiquity. Long before the medieval fortress existed, the Romans and pre-Roman peoples made use of the strategic value of this Danube crossing. The military road that connected the Balkan provinces with the heart of the Roman Empire ran nearby. Its structure dominates the landscape that began to take shape around the 14th century, in the midst of the fragmentation of the Balkan world following the weakening of the Byzantine Empire.

The first written reference to Golubac appeared in Hungarian documents from 1335. By then, the fortress was already a military enclave of great importance. It controlled the flow of river traffic with a chain on the Danube, used to stop ships and collect tolls. This ability to block the river made Golubac a coveted piece of property for the great regional powers.

In the 14th century, the fortress passed alternately into Serbian and Hungarian hands. At that time, the Kingdom of Hungary and Serbian feudal lords were fighting for control of the Danubian border while the Ottoman Empire was advancing from the southeast. Golubac served as a defensive base and also a diplomatic tool in a region suffering from the instability of alliances.

The arrival of the Ottomans definitely changed the fate of the fortress. In 1389, the sultan's troops began to consolidate their presence in Serbia. Shortly after, Golubac came under Ottoman control. For the Turks, the enclave was essential: it dominated the navigation of the Danube and served as a gateway to Central Europe.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg organized a major military campaign to recover it. The episode led to the Battle of Golubac, one of the most dramatic confrontations on the medieval Danubian border. The Christian forces, supported by European knights and heavy artillery, attempted to lay siege to the fortress. However, the Ottomans resisted and launched a large-scale counterattack. The Hungarian retreat ended in chaos and there were numerous casualties, temporarily consolidating Turkish dominance in the region.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Golubac remained a focal point in the rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, a power later replaced by the Habsburgs. The fortress was reinforced with new towers and walls adapted to the use of artillery. Its defenses eventually included ten towers interconnected by complex stepped walls that descended to the river.

Over time, the military importance of Golubac declined, although it continued to be occupied by different powers in the 19th century, when the weakening of the Ottoman Empire led to the resurgence of the modern Serbian state.

For a long period of time, the fortress was partially abandoned and deteriorated. In the 20th century, moreover, the construction of modern roads altered the historical setting: a highway crossed the walls. Nevertheless, the profile of Golubac remains one of the most powerful visual symbols of the Balkan Danube.

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A French Château in the heart of Belgium

The Château de Celles, also known as the Château de Vêves, is one of the most notable examples of 15th-century military architecture in the Belgian region of Wallonia. According to tradition and the chronicles, the origins of the original castle date back to the time of Pepin of Herstal (670–714), drawn by the presence of Saint Hadelin and by the hill's favourable position, which overlooks and controls the ancient road from Dinant to Rochefort.

Pepin of Heristal was first the palatine mayor of the court of Austrasia and then of Neustria and Burgundy, the nuclei that would later constitute the Kingdom of the Franks, which extended northwards into Frisia and westwards into Germania, including present-day Wallonia.

By the late 12th century, the castle remained in the hands of the Beaufort family, at which time it was destroyed, only to be rebuilt around 1230. In the early 15th century, the Château de Vêves was almost completely destroyed by fire, but was later restored.

In 1466, the lord of the castle, Louis de Beaufort, took part in the siege of Dinant, during which the city was destroyed by Charles the Bold, the powerful and last Duke of Burgundy. The castle remained a fortress until the end of the Middle Ages.

During the Renaissance, the buildings underwent a complete transformation. Later, under the reign of Louis XV, in the early 18th century, further modifications were made, mainly to the interior layout, by the Liedekerke-Beaumont family.

In 1793, during the French Revolution, the castle suffered serious damage, although subsequent restorations gave it its present appearance, preserving its plan, which forms an irregular triangle flanked by four large towers and two smaller ones.

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A big castle within a big fortress

Castel Grande in Bellinzona, in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino (Tesin in Lombard dialect), is a fortress most likely built by the Romans from the 4th century onwards, by which time the barbarians had already breached the limes and reached the Empire’s major cities.

Around the year 500, when the fall of Rome became a reality, the Ostrogoths settled on the Italian peninsula, but the Lombards arrived on their heels barely a century later, leaving a mark on the entire region that is still evident in its name and cultural traits, such as the Italian dialect spoken by its inhabitants.

A little later it was the turn of the Franks, who settled in northern Italy and incorporated the territory into their Empire, which was established when Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome in the year 800. However, the break-up of his kingdom led to the emergence of another Empire, the Roman-Germanic Empire, with the result that a Saxon dynasty came to control the region.

In this context, Bellinzona became a strategic passage for the movement of goods, people and troops between the Alpine region and northern Italy. Rising in the middle of the valley is the Castel Grande, rebuilt in the 10th and 11th centuries, which, as the city’s main defensive stronghold, was joined in the 13th century by the Castello di Montebello.

Both were incorporated into the city’s wall system by the lords of Lombardy, the Dukes of Milan, as Bellinzona was the scene of the Swiss Confederation’s expansion southwards and fell into the hands of the so-called Confederates on several occasions throughout the 15th century. To complete the city’s defences, another castle, Castello Sasso Corbaro, was built in record time towards the end of that century.

The intervention, also expansionist in nature, of the French kings in the region led to Bellinzona eventually becoming part of its new northern Alpine neighbour around 1500 and, for almost three centuries, the three castles were renamed after the three cantons that showed the greatest interest in extending what we now know as Switzerland southwards: Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. It was not until 1803 that the canton of Ticino was created.

The complex of castles and walls in Bellinzona was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

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A Venetian tower in the pistachios’ island

The Markellos Tower (Pyrgos Markellou, according to the Latin transcription of its Greek name) is a Venetian tower located in Aegina, the capital of the island of the same name, the largest in the Saronic Gulf and not far from the island of Salamis, the site of one of the most legendary naval battles of the Greco-Persian Wars on Greek soil.

Its origins date back to the 17th century, when the Republic of Venice extended its possessions across much of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas. After Aegina fell under the Ottoman Empire in 1718, its use is unknown, but in 1802, Spyridon Markellos, one of the leaders of the subsequent Greek revolution, undertook its restoration. Between 1826 and 1828—before independence—the city served as the seat of the Hellenic government, a role that continued when the city briefly became the first capital of modern Greece.

However, the area surrounding the Tower has a remarkable history, both in Greek mythology and history, as well as in its later medieval history, where the Crown of Aragon played a significant role for almost a century and a half, during the 14th and 15th centuries.

In Greek mythology, Aegina was the daughter of the river god Asopus and the nymph Metope. She was abducted by Zeus and taken to the island of Oenone, where their son, Aeacus, was born. He later became king of the island, which he subsequently renamed after his mother.

The island was renowned for its naval power, which led it to form an alliance with Thebes against Athens and later participate in the wars against the Persians, contributing 40 ships to the Battle of Salamis. Later, Athens exacted revenge for past attacks by defeating the forces of Aegina and subsequently expelling its inhabitants, repopulating the island with Athenian citizens.

Rome and later Constantinople marked Aegina's existence from the 2nd century BC onward. And until the 13th century, when the Eastern Roman Empire lost it to the Croats, who established several so-called Latin states, such as the Lordship of Aegina (Eguena or Leguena in Old Catalan), created in 1204 and, from 1317, integrated into the Duchy of Athens, one of the Catalan-Aragonese dependencies in Greece.

Until 1402, the lordship was ruled by a lineage descended from Alfons Frederic of Aragon, Count of Salona, ​​who was the son of Frederick II of Sicily, son of Peter the Great, and vicar of the Great Catalan Company. During the remainder of the Catalan-Aragonese rule of the island, it remained in the hands of the Caupena lineage, lords of Piada, who saw the island ceded to Venice in 1451, although they rebelled until the cession was confirmed in 1460.

The Ottoman rise in the Eastern Mediterranean led to repeated attacks by Turkish pirates, but the Venetians held firm for nearly 250 years. However, the Ottomans only remained for a little over a century, and the Markellou Tower re-emerged in the landscape of the capital of an island now better known for pistachios, its main agricultural product.

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A castle hill with Roman roots

Ptuj Castle (Slovene: Grad Ptuj, also known in German as Schloß Oberpettau) is a medieval castle complex located on the Castle Hill in the Slovenian city of Ptuj. The complex is a listed historical monument and has served as a museum since 1945.

The castle originated as a Roman fortress on this site on top of this hill. Archaeological excavations suggest that people sought refuge on this hill in prehistoric times, and remains of Celtic settlements have also been found there. In the 9th century, the castle was converted into a fortress, and in the 11th–12th centuries, it was renovated at the behest of Archbishop Conrad I of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, who owned Ptuj, then known by its German name, Pettau, and the castle.

At that time it had a tribute tower (called Konrad's Tower) and several small watchtowers in a wall made of natural stone. In the first third of the 12th century, the Counts of Pettau became the owners of the castle, who expanded it and established their residence there. During their rule, Franciscan and Minorite monasteries were also built in the city, as well as a pilgrimage church on the castle hill.

In the following centuries, the complex passed successively to the kings of Hungary and Bohemia, to the Teutonic Knights and again to the lords of Pettau. The horseshoe-shaped palace was built in the 14th century. Finally, from 1438, the Salzburg district took over its administration. In 1479, the castle came under Hungarian occupation.

The most important renovations of the castle took place from the mid-17th century onwards, initiated by Imperial Marshal Walther Leslie, a Scottish nobleman of Hungarian origin, who had purchased the property in 1656.

The last owners were the Counts of Herberstein, who acquired the complex in 1873 and renovated it in 1912. They also established a small museum at that time. The Counts were dispossessed at the end of World War II in 1945. Later, the Yugoslav state decreed the establishment of a regional museum in the castle complex, which was named the Ptuj Regional Museum in 1963.

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A Royal Acropolis in Poland

The Wawel Royal Castle (Polish: Zamek Królewski na Wawelu), or Wawel Castle (Zamek Wawelski) for short, is the former residence and seat of government of the kings of Poland in Kraków. Founded around 1000 during the reign of Bolesław I, it is one of the most significant sites in the history of Poland and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978.

Wawel is a 228-metre-high limestone hill built on the left bank of the Vistula River in central Kraków. It is the southernmost spur of the Kraków-Częstochowa Heights, a limestone mountain range in south-central Poland that is between 161 and 155 million years old. The entire area is heavily karstified, and the landscape is crisscrossed with caves.

On the slope of Wawel overlooking the Vistula River, one of these karst caves, the Smocza Jama, extends from the castle walls at the top of the hill to its foot. People called it the Dragon's Cave because of its shape. Legend has it that a dragon lived there until the knight Krak came and outwitted him. The city of Kraków was then founded on this site and named after the knight.

Wawel Hill is home to Wawel Castle (Zamek na Wawelu), the former residence of Polish kings from 1040 to 1795, Wawel Cathedral (Katedra na Wawelu), the former coronation church of Polish monarchs, and other historic buildings. The initial development of the hill in the High Middle Ages was followed by the construction of numerous buildings over the centuries.

From late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, Wawel was a center of power for the West Slavic tribe of the Vistulans (as the inhabitants of the banks of the Vistula River were called), who established the first independent state in the area of ​​present-day Lesser Poland in the 6th century.

In the 9th century, the pagan Vistulas came under the rule of the Great Moravian Empire. When it fell, the Vistulans briefly regained their independence, only to be conquered in the second half of the 10th century by a more powerful Polish tribe, the Polans, who had converted to Catholicism in 966. They later founded a kingdom that became Poland.

After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Kraków came under the rule of the Austrian Monarchy, which established barracks on the hill and had all buildings between the castle and the western walls demolished to create a field for maneuvers. Several Renaissance houses and Romanesque-Gothic churches were destroyed. The arcades were also destroyed.

Inside the castle, the halls were converted into barracks and three hospitals were built against the northern castle wall. In 1809, Kraków came under the rule of the Duchy of Warsaw for five years, and in 1815 the city became a free republic. However, Austrian troops reoccupied the city in 1846 after the Kraków Uprising.

At the request of the Polish population and their representatives, Emperor Franz Josef I, in his capacity as King of Galizia and Lodomeria, elevated Kraków to the status of an official royal residence. This protected the complex from future damaging alterations. In 1905, the emperor ordered the withdrawal of Austrian soldiers from Wawel, after which the complex could be preserved.

A plan was drawn up between 1904 and 1907 that envisaged the hill hosting the Polish Parliament, the National Museum, the Episcopal Curia and the Polish Academy, like a kind of Acropolis. An amphitheatre was also to be built there. The plans were never realised.

Between 1939 and 1945, Wawel Castle served as the headquarters of the German occupying forces in the General Government under Hans Frank. A set of courtyards in the opulent style typical of the Nazi era survive from this period, although their distinctive features were removed during the most recent renovation.

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A fortress and a Trojan War Greek hero

The fortress of Palamedes (Palamidi, in Italian), located on a hill overlooking the city of Nafplio and the Argolic Gulf, in the Peloponnese, was built by the Venetians between 1711 and 1714 in order to face the Turks, when the Ottoman Empire dominated almost all of the Balkans and Greece, while the Republic of Venice was gradually retreating from its maximum extension, achieved since the end of the Middle Ages.

The result of this retreat was the occupation of the fortress by the Turks in 1715, barely a year after it was completed, although its eight levels of bastions should have made it impregnable. The garrison was massacred.

Each of the bastions has a name: the original Venetian ones were replaced by Turkish names and, in 1822, when the Greeks took the fortress from Staikos Staikopoulos, they were renamed after heroes. Seven of them were Greek: Epaminondas, Miltiades, Leonidas, Photius, Achilles, Themistocles and Agios Andreas - Saint Andrew. The eighth honoured a French philohellenic, Lieutenant Francis Robert, who defended the Acropolis of Athens and died there in 1826.

In addition, the construction's relationship with Greek mythology means that its name was that of a Greek hero, Palamedes, who participated in the Trojan War. He was the son of Nauplion, who gave his name to the city on which the fortress stands.

Among the features that make Palamedes famous is its connection to the city by tunnels, but also the staircase of 857 steps that has gone down in history as if it had 999, a more impressive number to say the least.

During the revolution that evolved into the Greek War of Independence, between 1821 and 1832, one of the most prominent military leaders was Theodoros Kolokotronis, who was later imprisoned in Palamedes from 1834 to 1835, when the fortress became a barracks and prison, very close to the first capital of Greece, the city of Nafplio.

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The castle of Hamlet, prince of Denmark

Kronborg Castle, near the Danish city of Helsingør, owes its origin to a fortress called Krogen, built by King Eric of Pomerania in the 15th century to control maritime traffic between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, where the lands of most of his kingdom were located.

However, the current castle dates from the 16th century, when King Fredrik II built a Renaissance castle that was occasionally the seat of the Danish court. Its magnificence probably reached beyond the sea, to England, where a prestigious writer, William Shakespeare, christened it with the name Elsinore and made it the setting for a family drama.

Hamlet would have been a prince of Denmark at an undetermined time between the 5th and 9th centuries who had to deal with the death of his father, the king, at the hands of his uncle, who usurped the throne and married his mother, and had to avoid his death by pretending to be crazy, waiting for the moment of revenge. The place of the events: Elsinore. An adaptation of the Danish name of the city where the castle is located.

It is believed that the story of Hamlet, or Amleth, narrated by a Danish chronicler called Saxo Grammaticus around the 13th century, could have its origin in another older one of Icelandic origin, probably from the 10th century. Others focus on a probable Frisian and even Irish origin. This is a reminder of a time when traffic with commercial purposes but also of plunder and conquest in the Atlantic was very active.

With the story of the Danish prince already circulating throughout Europe, and with Shakespeare (1616) and Fredrik II (1588) already dead, Kronborg Castle fell into neglect. Thus, in 1629 it burned down and the reconstruction was far from recovering its splendor.

Scandinavian regional rivalry caused it to eventually fall under Swedish rule in 1658, when it was rebuilt to become one of the most solid fortresses in all of Europe. Between the 18th century and the early 20th century, Kronborg was converted into a prison under military administration.

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More than the most famous Swiss cheese

First mentioned in written sources in 1244, the Château de Gruyère was the main residence of one of the most important medieval noble families in western Switzerland: the Counts of Gruyère.

The 13th-century structure follows the military model of a "Savoyard square". This square fortress model was developed by the House of Savoy, of which the counts were vassals. The square is protected by a nearly square wall, reinforced by a keep, a tower and several corner turrets.

Extensive renovations, initiated in the 15th century by Count Louis, transformed the castle into a stately residence, with elegant stone galleries with large windows replacing some of the wooden galleries. A stair tower was also added to the residential wing and a chapel was built in a former defensive tower.

For almost 500 years, the Counts of Gruyère ruled a large territory consisting of castellanies on both sides of the Saane River, as well as lordships such as Palézieux, Oron and Aubonne.

Several Counts of Gruyère distinguished themselves on the battlefields during the Hundred Years' War and the Burgundian Wars, fighting on the side of the Swiss Confederation. The dynasty disappeared with Count Michel, who, affected by financial problems, saw his properties confiscated in 1554 by his main creditors, the cities of Bern and Fribourg.

After Count Michel's bankruptcy, Bern and Fribourg divided the territories of the old county. Fribourg took possession of what is now the Gruyère region and housed its bailiffs in the castle. They were responsible for administering the region, administering justice, managing finances, administering estates and collecting taxes.

Between 1555 and 1798, more than 50 bailiffs from patrician Fribourg families succeeded each other in Gruyère. During their tenure, these lords expanded the alpine pastures and increased the production of cheese, which was increasingly sold on foreign markets. The cheese wheels, which withstood long-distance transport well, were brought overland to Vevey, where they were loaded onto ships and sent to the French city of Lyon via the Saone and Rhone rivers.

The governors and their successors, the chief administrators, resided in the castle until 1848, when the district office of the new Gruyère region was established in Bulle. Since the castle, a symbol of the old governorship, had become too expensive to maintain, it was put up for sale. It was then acquired by a Genevan family.

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A ruined big Swedish fortress

Borgholm Castle was possibly the most impressive fortress in Scandinavia for over 900 years, since its construction in the 12th century. From its strategic position it stood guard over the Kalmar Strait, which separates mainland Sweden from the island of Gotland.

Before the castle was destroyed by fire in the early 19th century, Borgholm's history includes a turbulent history as a fortress, fortification, Renaissance and later Baroque palace. However, its walls are among the best preserved in Sweden, considering that the castle is in ruins.

Its construction is attributed to King Canute II of Denmark (I of Sweden) around the second half of the 12th century, who built the eastern coast of the current Swedish coast with defensive castles against potential enemies from the other side of the Baltic Sea.

During the Kalmar Union (1397–1523), which united Denmark, Norway and Sweden under the same crown, many castles and fortresses in Sweden were damaged due to constant conflicts between the Danes and Swedes. When Gustav Eriksson, later known as Gustav I Vasa, became King of Sweden (1523–1560) and the union was dissolved, he, together with his sons who succeeded him to the throne, invested enormous amounts of money in its repair.

It was Gustav's son, Johan III (1568–1592), who ordered the reconstruction of Borgholm into a Renaissance castle. During his reign, the Pahr brothers (four engineers and architects originally from Milan) led a significant reconstruction that took place from 1572. The castle acquired a Gothic character and became a model of the Italian bastion style.

A few decades later, Sweden and Denmark clashed in the Kalmar War. Borgholm Castle first surrendered to the Danes in 1611, but was recaptured by the Swedes later that year. The following year, after a two-week siege, the Swedish garrison surrendered. Later, in the Treaty of Knäred, which ended the conflict, Borgholm was returned to the Swedes.

Restoration and reconstruction began in 1654, to become a Baroque palace, under the reign of Karl X Gustaf. When he died in 1660, reconstruction stopped, to be resumed at a slow pace during the reigns of Karl XI and Karl XII. In 1709, construction was finally completed, but for a century the palace was abandoned to decay, until a fire in 1806.

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A luxury hunting lodge in Saxony

The palace-castle of Hubertusburg is located in Wermsdorf, between the large Saxon cities of Leipzig and Dresden. Built from 1721 onwards, the building was a hunting lodge for the Saxon prince-electors and also served as a temporary secondary residence for Elector Augustus III, who was also King of Poland.

The Wermsdorf Forest, then called the Mutzschen Heath (Mutzschener Heyde in German), had been a favorite hunting ground of the Wettin dynasty since the time of Christian II, who, around 1610, had the Wermsdorf Hunting Lodge built there in the Saxon Renaissance style. His successor, Johann Georg I, expanded it between 1617 and 1626.

On 3 November 1721, the feast of St. Hubert, August the Strong announced the construction of a new hunting lodge in keeping with his Polish royal and Saxon prince-electoral rank. It was understood that it would be built in the Dresden Baroque style and would be large enough to accommodate the great annual court hunts with their numerous retinues, including opulent feasts.

The old hunting lodge would henceforth serve only as accommodation for the court and its servants. He entrusted the construction management to Johann Christoph Naumann. Thus, in just three years of construction, a baroque hunting lodge was created that was ranked among the largest in Europe. During this time, the southern courtyard, the so-called German Hunting Courtyard, with the Baker's Gate leading to Reckwitz, was also built.

On 31 May 1770, the Elector of Saxony Frederick Augustus III approved the establishment of a factory for the production of earthenware, specifying the exact type of tableware to be manufactured in order to avoid competition with the Meissen porcelain factory.

In 1771, the products were a great success at the St. Michael's Fair in Leipzig. In 1776, the Elector himself took over the factory. However, due to the lower durability and higher price of the newly introduced earthenware, earthenware could not compete in the long term. The factory therefore switched to the production of earthenware, which was improved by refined glaze recipes.

Demand for the factory was so high that the facilities had to be expanded in 1799, but with the start of the Continental System in 1815, sales plummeted. Attempts were made to counter this trend with copperplate printing and lithography, and later with enamel painting, but the market remained difficult. New factories sprang up in Colditz and Rochlitz, and cheap products flooded the Thuringian market.

In 1834, the King of Saxony sold the factory. The company went bankrupt in 1848. In 1850, the Saxon state bought the buildings, which later became part of the state heritage. In 1979, during construction work in the old Baroque garden, layers of ceramic fragments one meter thick, a legacy of the old Hubertusburg pottery, were discovered.

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One castle, one lake, one monster

Urquhart Castle (Caisteal Urchadain or Caisteal na Sròine in Scottish Gaelic), now in ruins, as a settlement in the Highlands of Scotland seems to trace its history back to the Iron Age, when the promontory on the shore of Loch Ness (Loch Nis) on which it is situated would have been fortified.

The castle may have been the residence of Emchath, a Pictish nobleman visited by Saint Columban during his mission to the Highlands in the 6th century, as recorded by his biographer, Adomnan. The discovery of a fragment of a Pictish brooch and the form of the settlement support the idea that this was a Pictish site of some importance.

​​Urquhart has a distinguished medieval history as a castle, with an occupation extending for over 500 years, from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Shortly after 1230, King Alexander II (Alaxandair mac Uilliam) granted the lordship of Urquhart to his son-in-law Alan Durward, who began to transform it into a medieval stone castle.

In 1275, the lordship passed to John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lochaber, but in 1296 Edward I of England captured it. Andrew Moray attempted to recover it in 1297, but failed. However, it was back in English hands when, in 1303, the castle was recaptured by the Scots. The followers of King Robert the Bruce annihilated the Comyns in 1307, and Urquhart returned to Scottish hands.

In 1346, John, 3rd Earl of Moray, Lord of Urquhart, died and the castle returned to the Scottish Crown. It played an increasingly strategic role in the struggles against the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles. This conflict led to several invasions from the west, with the territory changing hands frequently. It was not until 1476 that John MacDonald was forced to give up his claim to the County of Ross and retreat to the west, where his lands extended.

The territory was granted to George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, and leased by him to Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie. In 1509, the Grants received the lordship of Urquhart directly from the Crown and were ordered to rebuild and repair the castle and guard the area. In 1545, the MacDonalds reoccupied the castle, encouraged by the actions of Henry VIII of England. This was the last time the Urquhart Valley saw the "Westmen".

By 1650 it was no longer a noble residence and was only used briefly during the Civil Wars of the 17th century. Cromwell ignored Urquhart during the 1650s, relying instead on the mission of a frigate patrolling Loch Ness.

It was garrisoned for the last time in 1689 when Captain James Grant defended the castle with 300 men against the Jacobites, supporters of the cause of the Scottish kings. In 1692, Grant de Freuchie complained that the soldiers had blown up some of its buildings as they left. It was never repaired, and the image of its dilapidated state is associated with the presence of its famous monster in the loch.

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A palace in the heart of Mitteleuropa

The Baroque Palace of Moszna (Polish: Pałac w Mosznej, German: Schloß Moschen) dates back to the 17th century, although excavations in the early 20th century found older cellars in its gardens. An earlier building could probably date back to the 14th century in the Silesia region, which orbited between the Polish, Bohemian, Austrian, Prussian and German states.

In 1679, the Von Skall family became the owners of Moschen, until the last heiress, Ursula, died in 1723, when her cousin, the Prussian Marshal Georg Wilhelm von Reisewitz, became the new lord of Moschen. In 1771, it was purchased at auction by Count Heinrich Leopold von Seherr-Toss.

In 1853, Karl Gotthard von Seherr-Toss sold it to Heinrich von Erdmannsdorf, who sold it in 1866, when the Von Tiele-Winkler family became the new owner and gave it its current splendor.

The central part of the castle is a former Baroque palace that was partially destroyed by fire in 1896 and then rebuilt in its original form the same year by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler, who had been made Count by Kaiser Wilhelm II the year before. The reconstruction work included an extension of the residence. The east wing of the building, in neo-Gothic style, was built around 1900, together with an adjacent orangery.

The west wing was built in neo-Renaissance style between 1912 and 1914. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles. The height of the building, as well as its numerous towers (99) and spires, give it a vertical air. Its interior contains 365 rooms with a surface area of ​​7,000 square meters.

In 1945, the Von Tieler-Winckler family left Moschen to flee the Soviet invasion, which made possible the creation of the People's Republic of Poland, which became the new owner of the palace, now in the renamed town of Moszna. Later, during the communist regime, it housed a sanatorium. In the 21st century, it was converted into a center that can be visited and, in addition, houses a hotel.