Shakespeare's mythical Elsinore stands at the northeastern headland of Zealand - Denmark's largest and most populated island -, overlooking the Øresund and Sweden.

In1420's, a first fortress (Krogen) was built here. Completed by the fortress of Kärnan, on the opposite side of the sound (swedish nowadays, but danish at that time), Krogen controlled ( Read more... )

The original castle of Bussy was built in 12th century, but the place was reconstructed and modernized many times.
In 1520, the surrounding wall is knocked down to create delicate Renaissance galleries in the courtyard, and in 1649, the new front of the castle is finished by the new owners of the place, the family of Rabutin - now de Bussy-Rabutin. ( Read more... )

In 1844, after the great success of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas is at the height of his fame and fortune. Searching for a place where he could escape parisian bustle to produce new stories, he buys a few plots of land on the slopes of Port-Marly and hires the architect Hippolyte Durand to build his dream ( Read more... )

On the shores of a quiet little strait in Beara Peninsula, a 19th century manor and the ruins of a 15th castle stand face to face. A notice here tells the story of Dunboy Castle, besieged by English troops during Nine Years War but you find almost nothing about the manor and I had to search the web to find more informations about it. These are two  ( Read more... )

Just a picture from the road, after a long day of discoveries.
According to this website (where you can find a few more historical informations) the castle, overlooking the little bay of Dunmanus, was built in 1430 by Donogh More O'Mahony.


( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Imagine a walled city surrounded by the sea. At low tide, beaches and rocks at the feet of the ramparts. At high tide, islands and waves, sometimes spectacularA medieval castle between the harbour, the main beach and the town, and two 17th century forts built by Vauban to improve the defence of the city ( Read more... )

The first castle was built here in the 12th century by Jean de Bazoches, on the site of an old Roman post ( Read more... )

Robert II d'Harcourt, one of the companions of Richard Lionheart, probably built the first stone castle here, in the late 12th century. One hundred years later, the old keep was integrated to a larger, polygonal castle, and the defence of the castle continued to improve with a monumental fortified door ( Read more... )

"Malmaison", which could be translated by "Bad" or even "Evil House" is a strange name for this quiet, pastoral castle in a quiet suburb of Paris. This is not linked to Napoleon's presence here - whatever you may think of Napoleon ^^ - but History says that Norman invaders had their den here, a lond time ago.
The name (Mala Domus, at that time) ( Read more... )