The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Castles
Casa Loma – Toronto, Canada
Sep 15th
Sir Henry Mill Pellatt was the Donald Trump of his day, but instead of building an eponymous tower, this Canadian entrepreneur, who harnessed his fortune to the power of hydroelectricity and Niagara Falls, built a medieval folly called Casa Loma – a sandstone, seven-storey, twin-towered Camelot.
Pellatt hired architect Edward Lennox, who incorporated his client’s castle sketches into one grand medieval mélange. The Scottish link to all things empirically Canadian is amazing; stonemasons were hired from across the pond in Scotland. More >
Shirasagijo – Himeji Castle (Giant White Herron Castle)
Sep 5th
On a hill overlooking a verdant Japanese plain 25 miles west of Osaka stands the most peaceful-looking military fortification in the world. Shirasagijo – White Heron Castle – so named because its graceful, undulating lines recall the profile of the long-stemmed shorebird, is sometimes called Himeji Castle, for the city it overlooks.
Completed in just nine years by 25,000 workers, Shirasagijo was built to serve as a regional stronghold for the Tokugawa Shogunate. One of the very few and best-preserved examples of 17th century fortress architecture that have survived to modern times, Himeji demonstrates that Japan’s medieval architects could not stop themselves from creating beautiful, elegant structures. More >
Neuschwanstein Castle – Bavaria, Germany
Aug 6th
The mentally unstable King Ludwig II of Bavaria had a fascination with the middle Ages and the music of Richard Wagner, and these interests were combined in the construction of Neuschwanstein, a mock castle in the Bavarian Alps. Ludwig’s obsession with a mythical past was given extra impetus after Bavaria’s defeat in the 1866 war with Prussia: Bavaria was absorbed into a Prussia-dominated Germany and was no longer a sovereign state. With no real function to perform as king, Ludwig became more of a recluse and retreated deeper into his fantasies.
Work began in 1869 on the Gateway Building, where Ludwig lived while the rest of the castle was being built. Although scenic, the mountain location of the castle presented many problems for the architectural and construction teams, who often had to work around the clock to meet Ludwig’s harsh demands. More >
