The Castle that Wept Granite Perched high on the jagged cliffs above the River Teifi in Wales, Cilgerran Castle has stood for nearly eight centuries—less as a relic and more as a stubborn geological fact. Constructed primarily between 1223 and 1230 by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and one of the most powerful men…
Author: Rafaela con Viaggia
I'm a travel writer and with a specialisation in Castles all around the globe.
If you are a castle owner and you want to be included in my future guide please contact me.
The Crying Gargoyle of Hohenzollern Castle
The Weeping Gargoyle of Hohenzollern Castle Perched atop the 855-meter-high Mount Hohenzollern in the Swabian Alps, Hohenzollern Castle commands the German horizon like a sentinel from a mist-enshrouded folktale. It is not, as some assume, a relic of medieval rigidity alone—Hohenzollern as we know it today is the third incarnation of a fortress whose tangled…
The Fortress at Weather’s Edge
The Castle at the Edge of Weather Perched alone on the blustery Atlantic coast of County Clare, Ireland, is Doonagore Castle — a 16th-century tower house whose name means “fort of the rounded hill” in Gaelic. Standing as a windswept sentinel over the ocean and village of Doolin, Doonagore’s origins are steeped in stone and…
The Fortress That Remembers the Moon
The Castle That Remembered the Moon Cradled in the wind-kissed highlands of Aberdeenshire, amid the moors and gorse-thickened valleys of eastern Scotland, lies a fortress older than many of its neighboring stones dare remember: Dunnottar Castle. Perched upon a dramatic promontory overlooking the North Sea, its weather-battered ruins speak not merely of time, but of…
The Castle Whose Towers Never Forgot
The Castle Whose Towers Remembered Everything Perched high on a rocky outcrop overlooking the serene River Dee in northeast Wales, the brooding structure of Castell Dinas Brân commands both reverence and sorrow. Often overshadowed by more flamboyant Gothic counterparts or the unassailable bastions of Edward I’s Iron Ring, Dinas Brân is a rarer specimen—a ruined…
The Castle That Longed for Silence
The Castle that Dreamed of Silence In the low heart of Slovakia’s countryside, where the Váh River winds without ceremony past pale green hills, sits the often-overlooked but indomitably dignified Bojnice Castle. Of all Central Europe’s slow-breathing stone leviathans, Bojnice is perhaps the most romantic—not in the Disney-princess sense of the word, but in its…
The Fortress That Wouldn’t Fall
The Castle That Refused to Crumble Krzyżtopór Castle, nestled in the pastoral fields of Ujazd, Poland, is a testament to ambition, eccentricity, and the heavy hand of time. Built between 1627 and 1644 by the nobleman Krzysztof Ossoliński, the castle was meant to be not merely a residence but an esoteric marvel—both fortress and calendar….
The Fortress That Dreamed in Stone and Wept in Selfies
The Castle That Dreamed in Basalt and Mourned in Selfies Perched atop a lonely, wind-lashed rock in the verdant heart of Bohemia, the enigmatic Houska Castle stands as one of the Czech Republic’s strangest and most enduring edifices. Located approximately 47 kilometers north of Prague, the fortress emerges from the dense forests of the Kokořínsko…
The Fortress That Longed for Quiet
The Castle That Dreamed of Silence Rising stoically from the basalt cliffs of southern Bohemia, perched like a stone sentinel over the Vltava River, Český Krumlov Castle is one of the best-preserved medieval complexes in Central Europe. It is not as internationally fawned over as Neuschwanstein nor as instantly Instagrammable as Mont Saint-Michel. Yet behind…
The Castle That Remembered It Was a Mouthpiece
The Castle That Remembered It Was a Mouth Edinburgh Castle, perched defiantly atop Castle Rock, is less a fortress than a geological proclamation. The basalt volcanic plug upon which it rests surged skyward from the Paleogene Earth over 340 million years ago, but human conquest, of course, arrived rather later. Archaeological evidence tells us that…
The Castle That Longed for Bells and Endured Selfies
The Castle That Dreamed of Bells and Suffered Selfies Perched atop a basalt promontory overlooking the sleepy town of Fougeres in Brittany, France, Château de Fougères is a fortress that has withstood more than nine centuries of storms, sieges, and sorrow. First chronicled in the 11th century, the castle is a marvel of medieval military…
The Castle That Perplexed the Mountains
The Castle That Confused the Mountains Perched high above the meeting point of two tumbling rivers in eastern Slovakia, the ruins of Spiš Castle (Slovak: Spišský hrad) command the surrounding landscape like a contemplative elder who has seen too much. Constructed in the 12th century atop an earlier Slavic hillfort, the castle evolved over four…