A castle (from Latin: castellum) is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence - though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.
Castles
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1Szad Castle (Ruins), Szogliget
Szad Castle (Ruins), Szogliget. This castle is one greatest historically valuable sites within Aggtelek National Park. The destination is very popular with visitors, probably because the scenery is amazing.
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2Szanda Castle (Ruins)
Szanda Castle (Ruins). The fortification was built in 1301 in the second half of the XIII-th. century, then was first mentioned in a diploma.
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4Szentkereszty Castle, Arcus
The castle was built in 1773 but by 1897 was already modified, gaining its current design. The castle wastaken over by the communist regime in 1945. The castle’s inside was radically transformed during the 1980’s and became Nicolae Ceausescu’s summer house.
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2Szerencs Castle (Rakoczi Castle)
Szerencs Castle (Rakoczi Castle). In the middle of the 13th century Bogat-Radvany clan founded a Benedictine monastery on one of the outstanding hill of the swampy area which was reconstructed as a castle in order to give protection against the approaching Turkish troops.
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5Terebovlia Castle (Ruins)
The ruins of the castle Terebovlia located on the rugged mountain in the north-western part of Terebovlya. Strengthening existed here in princely times, when the settlement owned Prince Vasil'ko Rostislavich.
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8Ternopil Castle
The Ternopil Castle is a stronghold which gave birth to the city of Ternopil. It was built in the 16th century to protect the southern border of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
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1Tiefurt Mansion (Castle) and Park
Built in 1765 as a tenement house for a grand ducal demesne, the building served from 1776 as the residence of Prince Friedrich Ferdinand Constantin, the younger brother of the reigning Duke Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
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3Tokaj Castle (Ruins)
Tokaj Castle is castle ruins near of the confluence Tisza and Bodrog rivers of Tokaj region. The Tokaj Castle today has only the remains of one of the walls.
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10Torre Castle, San Vittore
The Torre Castle stands above the village of San Vittore in the district of Moesa in the Swiss canton of Graubunden. The name of the fortress comes from the lying beneath the Burgdorf part Pala.
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10Trencin Castle
The Trencin Castle is a castle above the town of Trencin in western Slovakia. History of the castle goes back to the age of the Roman Empire, testified by the inscription telling about the victory of the II.
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2Turna Castle (Ruins)
Ruins of the Turna castle from 14th century. It was destroyed in 1685. Situated on a hill on the south of Zádielská planina above the valley Turnianska dolina, altitude 375 meters.
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2Turnu Rosu Castle (Red Tower), Boita
Was originally a defensive military construction, built by the Saxons in 1360, near Boita, Sibiu county. It was completed in 1370 under King Louis I of Hungary in order to survey the Olt River Gorge, located near the old border with Romanian State.
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7Uzhhorod Castle
Uzhhorod Castle is an extensive citadel on a hill in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. It was built in a mixture of architectural styles and materials between the 13th and 18th centuries and figured heavily in the history of Hungary. The very name of Uzhhorod/Ungvár refers to the castle, translating as "the Uzh castle".
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10Vaduz Castle
Vaduz Castle is the palace and official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein. The castle gave its name to the town of Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, which it overlooks from an adjacent hilltop.
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3Vay Castle and Park, Vaja
Vay Castle, Vaja. The Renaissance-style Vay Castle was built in the 16th century, and underwent some Baroque remodeling a century later.
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10Venetian Castle (Bohali Castle), Zakynthos, Zakynthos Island
On the hill of Bohali above Zakynthos Town, there is the Venetian Castle. As excavations have shown, this castle was constructed on the site of the ancient acropolis of the island and also on the site of a former Byzantine castle.
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3Vinne Castle (Ruins)
Vinne Castle is the ruin of a Gothic castle probably built in the second half of the 13th century to protect the road leading to Poland.
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10Visegrad Castle (Upper Castle)
After the Mongol invasion, King Bela IV of Hungary and his wife had a new fortification system constructed in the 1240-50s near the one destroyed earlier. The first part of the new system was the Upper Castle on top of a high hill.
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2Vodny Hrad Castle (Ruins), Stitnik
Vodny Hrad is a castle in Stitnik, Slovakia. It was built in the 14th century. In the beginning of the 19th century, some of it was remodeled into a mansion-house. Stitnik is about 14 km from Roznava.
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10Wartburg Castle
The Wartburg is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a 410 metres precipice to the southwest of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany.
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8Zbarazh Castle
Zbarazh Castle is a fortified defense stronghold in Zbarazh, built during the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It dominates the crests of the Zamkova Hills of Ternopil Oblast in Western Ukraine next to the city's central plaza that was not in so distant past surrounded by marshland.
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10Zdislavice Castle
he nearby fortress of Zdislavice was documented in 1349. The castle was rebuilt as a Baroque palace in the late 17th century. Later a possession of the Czech baronial Dubsky of Trebomyslice family, it was the birthplace of the famous Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach on 13 September 1830.
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1Zerotinsky Castle (Chateau), Novy Jicin
The renaissance chateau in the centre of Novy Jicin was built in the 16th century in the location of the town castle. After the departure of the Zerotins the building was adapted to the town-hall, which is a landmark of Novy Jicin centre.
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7Zhovkva Castle
The Zhovkva Castle occupies the principal square of the town of Zhovkva in Ukraine. It was founded by Polish Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski as his fortified residence. Construction began in 1594 and was mostly completed in 1606.
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5Zhvanets Castle (Ruins)
Zhvanets Castle was built in the XV century, rebuilt several times and during the XX century was badly damaged. At the moment, there is only one tower and some parts of walls.
