Post pictures of your favourite castles

**Hercus Monte** · 08-09-2013, 01:47 PM

Panemunė Castle

**MelinusMargos** · 08-09-2013, 01:47 PM

Castello di sirmione

**Vasa** · 08-09-2013, 02:15 PM

Königstein

Walls on this bitch is like 42 meters high and it has Europes second deepest well in Europe (152,5 metre deep).

**Sisak** · 08-09-2013, 04:41 PM

Tvrdalj is the fortified summer residence of Petar Hektorović, the Croatian poet (1487-1572), renaissance building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvrdalj_Castle

**Fortis in Arduis** · 08-09-2013, 06:19 PM

Castle Drogo is a country house near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. It was built in the 1910s and 1920s for Julius Drewe (businessman and founder of the Home and Colonial Stores) to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens, and is a Grade I listed building. Castle Drogo was the last castle to be built in England, and probably the last private house in the country to be built entirely of granite.

Julius Drewe's first cousin was Richard Peek, the rector of Drewsteignton, named after Drogo de Teigne, and alleged forefather to the Drewes. Julius stayed on several occasions with his cousin and it must have been here that he conceived the idea of building a castle on the home ground of his ancestor. He found an ideal site, and in 1910 he bought about 450 acres (1.8 km2) south and west of the village (By the time of his death in 1931 he had bought up an estate of 1,500 acres). He then went to Edwin Lutyens, one of the most interesting architects of the time, and asked him to build his castle. According to his son Basil, he did so on the advice of William Hudson, proprietor of the Country Life Magazine, who was both a patron and a champion of Lutyens. Drewe was now 54 years old, but he still had time, energy and money to create his new family seat. On 4 April 1911, Drewe's 55th birthday, the first foundation stone was laid.

Construction

The castle took many years to complete, with the First World War and the economic downturn causing many delays. Castle Drogo was finally completed in 1930, considerably reduced in scale from Lutyens's 1911 designs, and only a year before Julius died; he had, however, been able to live in the house since around 1925.

Features of the building

The stately home borrows styles of castle building from the medieval and Tudor periods, along with more minimalist contemporary approaches. A notable feature is the encasement of the service staircase, around which the main staircase climbs. Its defensive characteristics are essentially decorative. Additionally, the castle had electricity and lifts from the outset, with power being supplied by two turbines on the river below.