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Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle

You may have seen this castle as a ninja training school in James Bond’s You Only Live Twice. It also appeared in The Last Samurai, several Kurosawa movies, and in the TV miniseries, Shogun. Also known as the “White Heron Castle”, Himeji Castle was originally built in the 14th century, and then rebuilt in 1580.

Hohenschwangau Castle

Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau Castle (lit: Castle of the High Swan County) is a 19th century castle in southern Germany. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. It is located in the German village of Schwangau near the town of Füssen, part of the county of Ostallgäu in southwestern Bavaria, Germany, very close to the border with Austria.

Hohenschwangau Castle was built on the remains of the fortress Schwanstein, which was first mentioned in historical records dating from the 12th century. A family of knights was responsible for the construction of the medieval fortress. After the demise of the knights in the 16th century the fortress changed hands several times. The decay of the fortress continued until it finally fell into ruins at the beginning of the 19th century.

In 1829 Crown Prince Maximilian (the later King Maximilian II of Bavaria) discovered the historic site and reacted enthusiastically to the beauty of the surrounding area. He acquired the property in 1832. One year later the reconstruction of the Castle began, continuing until 1837. The architect in charge, Domenico Quaglio, was responsible for the neogothic style of the exterior design.

Château de Chambord

Château de Chambord

The royal Château de Chambord at Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinct French Renaissance architecture that blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Italian structures.

It was constructed by King François I in part to be near to his mistress the Comtesse de Thoury, a member of a very important family of France, whose domaine the château de Muides was adjacent. Her arms figure in the carved decor of the château.

Chambord is the largest castle in the Loire Valley, but was built to serve only as a hunting lodge for François I, who maintained his royal residences at Château de Blois and at Château d’Amboise. The original design of the Château de Chambord is attributed, though with several doubts, to Domenico da Cortona, whose wooden model for the design survived long enough to be drawn by André Félibien in the seventeenth century.

Château de Chenonceau

Château de Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is castle near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century. The current manor was designed by the French Renaissance architect Philibert Delorme.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century Bavarian palace on a rugged hill near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner, the King’s inspiring muse. Although public photography of the interior is not permitted, it is the most photographed building in Germany and is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations.

Ludwig did not allow visitors to his castles, but after his death in 1886 the castle was opened to the public (in part due to the need to pay off the debts Ludwig incurred financing its construction). Since that time over 50 million people have visited the Neuschwanstein Castle. About 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer. The palace has appeared in several movies, and was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Park and for the Cinderella Castles at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland.

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