Some Europian Castles

Castle Muiderslot is in Nederlands. There was little good stone in this country so there isn't a lot of castles in Nederlands. This castle doesn't have huge walls that should provide good deffence because there is river all around the castle. It has usual English shape with round towers on its angles.

Castle Gutenfels and Pfalzgrafenstein, next to the river Rhine, show difference between two epohs. Castle Gutenfels ,which is on the top of the hill, is tipical old castle that doesnt have any walls around. It has just a big tower that gives big view. This view should help when the castle is attacked. This tipe of deffence soon wasn't enough. That's why today we have castle Pfalzgrafenstein. It looks down the river and it is built like a ship.

Castle Eltz is in Germany. It is very interesting because it inside has functions like a little city. It belongs to a period when part of the castle belonged to a different person.

Karlstein is located in Praha. Its role was to show Karl's power. The biggest tower is 37 meters tall! King Karl used to spend days and days all alone in one part of the castle. He kept all his wealth in Karlstein. This castle was attacked only once in religious battle.

Castle Coucy is located in France. Its round tower is 54 meters tall and 31 meters wide. This tower was a deffence of castle. Today we dont have too much that had left of it. Firstly, in year 1652 explosive was used in attention to ruin this castle but it destroyed just a little bit of it. Latter on, in year 1917 German army used 28.000 kilos of explosive and distroyed a principal tower.

Castle Rochester is located in Great Britain. The biggest part of this estat was built in XII century. The main tower was finished in 1139. This castle has three angles and main tower has two parts. In year 1215. castle had been attacked. At one of the angle towers atteckers digged and made a hool. They put big peaces of wood and dead fat pigs. Then the attackers made a fire. Hot pig oil made huge heatness and the wall broke down.

Castel del Monte is in Italy. It has octagon base and every angle has octagon tower. This tipe of construction is strong and safe, but it wasn't built for battles. This castle was a kind of hunting 'lodge'. In arhitecture of this castle we can see that it is a mix of ancient type of building and a modern one of it's time. There were often meetings of artists and poets from all over the world. In XV century it was a prison.