Castles of Europe

48 real castles, fortresses and walled cities — the “Stone Giants of Europe”. Browse by country, century or type, then open any castle for its story and map.

• Château de Chinon

  France · 10th century

  France's long ridge fortress on the Loire, linked to Joan of Arc and the Plantagenets

• Rocca Calascio

  Italy · 10th century

  Italy's highest fortress, a mountaintop ruin in the Apennines of Abruzzo

• Loarre Castle

  Spain · 11th century

  Spain's great Romanesque fortress, among the oldest castles in Europe

• Hohensalzburg Fortress

  Austria · 11th century

  One of Europe's largest hilltop fortresses, towering over Salzburg since 1077

• Walls of Ávila

  Spain · 11th century

  Spain's perfectly preserved medieval city walls, with 88 towers and nine gates

• Castel Beseno

  Italy · 12th century

  Trentino's largest fortified complex, sweeping along an Alpine ridge

• Castle of Diósgyőr

  Hungary · 12th century

  Hungary's four-towered Gothic queens' castle, rebuilt by Louis the Great

• Château de Castelnaud

  France · 12th century

  France's Dordogne hilltop fortress, a rival stronghold in the Hundred Years' War

• Château de Chillon

  Switzerland · 12th century

  Switzerland's island castle on Lake Geneva, with round towers and lakeside halls

• Cité de Carcassonne

  France · 12th century

  France's double-walled medieval city, ringed by more than fifty towers

• Dubrovnik City Walls

  Croatia · 12th century

  Croatia's mighty sea walls guarding the old port of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic

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  Edinburgh Castle

  Scotland · 12th century

  Scotland's clifftop royal fortress, grown on a volcanic crag since the 1100s

• Marksburg Castle

  Germany · 12th century

  The only Rhine hilltop castle never destroyed, rising in stacked terraces

• Ramparts of Provins

  France · 12th century

  France's medieval fair town, ringed by tall ramparts and towers

• Rock of Cashel

  Ireland · 12th century

  Ireland's medieval hilltop of kings, with a round tower, chapel and cathedral

• Spiš Castle

  Slovakia · 12th century

  One of Europe's largest castle complexes, sprawling over a Slovak ridge

• Óbidos Castle & Walls

  Portugal · 12th century

  Portugal's fairytale walled hill town crowned by a medieval castle

• Kalmar Castle

  Sweden · 12th century

  Sweden's Renaissance castle with round corner towers, guarding the Baltic coast

• Gravensteen

  Belgium · 12th century

  Belgium's moated 'Castle of the Counts' in the heart of Ghent

• Rothenburg ob der Tauber Walls

  Germany · 13th century

  Germany's best-preserved medieval town walls, with a covered wall-walk and towers

• St Andrews Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  Coastal bishops' castle with a notorious bottle dungeon and siege mine

• Visegrád Citadel

  Hungary · 13th century

  Hungary's hilltop citadel above the Danube Bend, once a royal seat

• York City Walls

  England · 13th century

  England's most complete medieval city walls, walkable above the streets of York

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  Eilean Donan

  Scotland · 13th century

  Scotland's most photographed castle, on a tidal island where three lochs meet

• Urquhart Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  Ruined lochside stronghold on the banks of Loch Ness

• Blair Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  White-walled Highland castle, home of the only legal private army in Europe

• Bothwell Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  Scotland's largest 13th-century stone castle, in red sandstone above the Clyde

• Caerlaverock Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  Britain's only triangular castle, a famous siege target in 1300

• Dunvegan Castle

  Scotland · 13th century

  Skye's Clan MacLeod seat, the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland

• Malbork Castle

  Poland · 13th century

  The world's largest brick castle, built by the Teutonic Knights in Poland

• Conwy Castle

  Wales · 13th century

  13th-century Welsh river fortress with eight towers, built in just four years

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  Dunnottar Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Dramatic clifftop fortress that hid the Honours of Scotland from Cromwell

• Dunrobin Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Fairytale French-château castle of the Dukes of Sutherland, by the sea

• Muiderslot

  Netherlands · 14th century

  The Netherlands' classic moated brick castle near Amsterdam

• Pfalzgrafenstein Castle

  Germany · 14th century

  Germany's 'stone ship' toll castle set on a Rhine island

• Karlštejn

  Czechia · 14th century

  Bohemia's Gothic crown-jewel castle, founded by Emperor Charles IV in 1348

• Tantallon Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Mighty red curtain-wall fortress on a cliff facing the Bass Rock

• Glamis Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Turreted fairytale castle, childhood home of the Queen Mother and the setting of Macbeth

• Craigmillar Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Well-preserved tower castle near Edinburgh tied to Mary, Queen of Scots

• Cawdor Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Turreted Highland castle linked by legend to Shakespeare's Macbeth

• Doune Castle

  Scotland · 14th century

  Well-preserved medieval castle famous from Monty Python, Outlander and Game of Thrones

• Corvin Castle

  Romania · 15th century

  Transylvania's grand Gothic castle, reached by a long bridge on stone pillars

• Castle Stalker

  Scotland · 15th century

  Four-storey tower house on a tiny tidal islet, seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

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  Kilchurn Castle

  Scotland · 15th century

  Picturesque ruined tower castle on the misty waters of Loch Awe

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  Stirling Castle

  Scotland · 15th century

  Great hilltop royal fortress of the Stewart kings, above the River Forth

• Walls of Lucca

  Italy · 16th century

  Italy's intact Renaissance ramparts, now a famous tree-lined walkway around Lucca

• Elvas Fortifications

  Portugal · 17th century

  Portugal's vast star-shaped border fortress, a UNESCO bastion stronghold

• Inveraray Castle

  Scotland · 18th century

  Gothic Revival fairytale seat of the Dukes of Argyll, featured in Downton Abbey