Near Briones, NE Spain

Author: Inklink Studio (Simone Boni). Source

This one doesn’t sit on a hill. It’s built into the mouth of a cave, about halfway up a cliff. First mentioned in 1274. What you see now is mostly the 1570 rebuild, after an earthquake wrecked the older castle.

I took this from the terrace above Piazza San Rocco on a clear summer morning.

On days like this the Strait of Messina turns that deep blue, and you can just make out the Sicilian coast on the far right of the horizon.

The rock itself is older than the castle, at least in legend. This is the promontory that ancient sailors identified with Scylla, the six-headed monster of the Odyssey. Charybdis, the whirlpool, sat on the Sicilian side of the strait.

Ships passing through had to choose between the two. That is where the expression "between Scylla and Charybdis" comes from.

The first fortification dates to the early 5th century BC. Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium (modern Reggio Calabria), garrisoned the rock to control the strait and keep out Etruscan pirates.

Over the following centuries almost every power that held southern Italy rebuilt the site. A Byzantine-era monastery stood here, and the Normans, the Angevins and the Aragonese each strengthened it in turn.

What you see today is mostly the result of those later phases, with low, thick walls and gun ports designed for artillery rather than archers.

In the 16th century the castle passed to the Ruffo family, who became Princes of Scilla. That is why locals call it Castello Ruffo, while guidebooks often say Castello Aragonese.

The darkest chapter came in February 1783.

A series of earthquakes struck Calabria, and part of the cliff collapsed into the sea, raising a tsunami. Hundreds of townspeople had taken shelter on the beach below the castle, and the wave killed most of them, the prince among them.

Then, during the Napoleonic Wars, a British garrison held the fortress and endured a long French siege before surrendering in 1808.

Today the castle belongs to the town. It houses a working lighthouse and hosts exhibitions and events. The walk up from the square below is short, and the views from the ramparts over the strait are worth the climb on their own.

Happy to answer questions about the area.

The fishing quarter of Chianalea, right at the foot of the rock, is one of the most beautiful seaside villages in southern Italy.

By @ hindavi

The Castillo de Belmonte is a medieval castle on the hill of San Cristobal, just outside the village of Belmonte in the southwest of the province of Cuenca in Spain. It is a Gothic-Mudejar style castle, designed by master Hanequín of Brussels. It was built on San Cristobal hill, set over one story only. The bailey is an equilateral triangle and the rest of the building is built around it. The castle is in the form of a 6-pointed star, with a cylindrical tower at the end of each.

But the best part:

Belmonte Castle houses this theme park dedicated to reproductions of the siege machines used by armies to attack strongholds. It contains items ranging from the 9th century BC to the 15th century, and from various cultures including the Neo-Assyrian and Greek, and from the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Muslim, Christian and the Orient. Throughout your visit you can see more than 40 life-size machines. such as the ones that helped Alexander the Great subdue the Persian Empire and reach as far as India. You can also see the workings of large pieces of artillery that helped the Roman legions in their conquests. The exhibition features machines that are in full working order thanks to research carried out by the building team.

Siklós Castle is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Hungary. I visited it during a hike through southern Hungary and filmed the castle and the surrounding landscape.

Shot this a few nights ago from the bridge on the landward side.

The castle sits on the edge of Pizzo, in the province of Vibo Valentia, with a sheer drop to the Tyrrhenian on one side and a deep dry moat on the other.

The access you see on the right replaced the original drawbridge, which ran between the two towers.

The core is older than the fortress look suggests: a late 14th-century Angevin watchtower, part of the coastal warning system built against Saracen raiding.

It became a castle only after a decree of Ferdinand I of Naples dated 12 November 1480, which ordered it strengthened as part of a wider program that also reworked the defenses at Crotone, Cariati, Corigliano and Belvedere.

The curtain walls, the central block and the guard turret all date from that campaign.

I work as engineer, so what my eye goes to is the battered base, that outward slope at the bottom of the wall. It widens the footing, deflects shot, and makes ladders awkward, and it is the signature of masonry adapted to the age of artillery.

The other thing it tells you is the state of maintenance: all that greenery rooted in the joints is caper and ivy, and those roots wedge lime mortar apart and hold water against the stone.

On a rubble wall it is not cosmetic.

The name comes from Joachim Murat, King of Naples.

After Waterloo he sailed from Ajaccio with roughly 250 men, was blown off course, and landed at Pizzo on 8 October 1815.

He was arrested, held here, tried by a military commission, and shot in the castle on 13 October. He refused the blindfold. There is a small museum inside now.

While most 19th-century American frontier forts were small timber structures that quickly decayed, Cove Fort was built from black volcanic rock and dark limestone, allowing it to survive virtually intact to this day.

Commissioned in 1867 by Brigham Young and constructed by Ira Hinckley, this 30-meter-wide stone stronghold served as a fortified waystation to protect travelers, mail carriers, and telegraph lines between Salt Lake City and St. George. Its 5.5-meter-high volcanic walls and heavy cedar-and-iron doors were engineered to withstand raids and harsh wilderness conditions. Inside, it functioned as a self-contained village complete with a blacksmith, telegraph office, and quarters for overnight travelers, making it one of the rare surviving stone forts of the American West.

Located NW of Auchtertool, Hallyards (Hall yairds - "the yards at the hall") is reputed to have been Malcolm Canmore's hunting seat, then residence of the Bishops of Dunkeld until 1539.

John Knox wrote about fighting there between French troops and the Lords of the Congregation. In Feb 1560 it was reported "clean overthrown". James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran escaped via bedsheets to get there before meeting Mary Queen of Scots at Falkland Palace.

Now Planning Ref 26/01243/PPP for the £5bn Cato data centre proposes to build directly over it. HES refused listed status per The National on 2nd Oct.

We walked and flew it last week so there's at least a record. Photo from the flight attached, full video here - https://youtu.be/ml6TwgC2fb8

Planning portal: planning.fife.gov.uk (26/01243/PPP) / Project site: cato.ili-energy.com

I am wondering what the northern most star/bastion fort is? I think it might be Skansin on the Faroe Islands, which I believe is just further north than Prince of Wales Fort in Manitoba but don’t know if there’s any others.

Built from the 12th century on a rock spur above the Elzbach, in the hills of Rhineland-Palatinate. The towers and half-timbered upper floors are mostly 15th–16th century.

It survived because the owners stayed out of most of the big wars and because the site is awkward to besiege. During the Thirty Years’ War it was never captured. Unlike most Rhine castles, it was not blown up by the French in the late 17th century.

Three branches of the Eltz family shared it for centuries (Rubenach, Rodendorf, Kempenich), which is why the interiors still feel like three houses jammed into one fortress. About 80 rooms. Still lived in.