Castles of the Western World: With 240 Illustrations (Dover Architecture)

Travel beyond the threatening tides of the Atlantic to the striking, fortified island of Mont St. Michel. Visit the extraordinary Swiss castle that belonged to the Count of Savoy and inspired "The Prisoner of Chillon," a world-famous poem by Lord Byron. Scale the walls of Cracassonne, a historic French city more than 2,000 years old. This excellent collection of photographs and detailed line drawings of castles of the Western world makes it possible. A painstakingly researched study of the castles' construction, architecture, siting, purpose, and remains, this superb archive focuses on more than 200 structures — from temples, palaces, and walls of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to Romanesque strongholds of the Normans and Gothic edifices of the crusaders and Teutonic knights to lavish palaces built in Italy, France, England, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia.
Included are such famous castles as the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, the Tower of London, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the family towers of San Gimignano, a reconstruction of the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, Pierrefonds in France, Caernarvon in Wales, Gravensteen in Belgium, the Archbishop's Palace of Hohensalzburg in Austria, and crusader castles in the Levant as well as fortresses and towers in Sicily, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, and Ireland.
Sure to fascinate anyone intrigued by these magnificent citadels of long ago, this volume will also be of great value to architectural historians.