FORT INDIA

Forts are important architectural relics of the long history of South Asia. The capital of each raja or chieftain was a fort around which a township grew and developed; this pattern can be seen in many South Asian cities such as Delhi, Agra, Lahore, Pune, Calcutta and Mumbai. Two forts in India are UNESCO world heritage sites the Agra fort and the Red fort. The oldest surviving fort in India is the Qila Mubarak atBathinda which had it origins in 100 AD during the Kushan empire or the Kangra Fort in Kangra believed to have been built by the still surviving Katoch dynasty after the battle of Mahabharta. The fort was written about by the scribes of Alexander the Great, thus making it the oldest fort in India.

Medieval Delhi developed around Chandni Chowk, the township adjoining the Red Fort while and Kolkatacame about around Fort William built by the British. Many small towns ranging from Jhansi to Chandragirigrew around forts. Some towns even acquired the names from the forts. Durg is fort in Hindi. Satara was so named because of the seventeen walls of the fort. Then there are famous monuments in certain cities and towns that overshadow the importance of the forts. Agra Fort pales into comparative insignificance against the glory of the Taj Mahal. Khajuraho temples overshadow Rajgarh Fort.

The conquest of, or battles for the forts of India have been significant occasions in Indian history. The capture of Qila Mubarak (Bathinda) in 1004 AD by Mahmud of Ghazni heralded the advent of Islamic rule inIndia. The struggle of Shivaji against the Mughals in the seventeenth century and his reign occur against the backdrop of forts in the Deccan. The capture of Seringapatam and death of Tippu Sultan in 1799 cemented British rule in South India. The capture of Gawilghur by Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, ended the Maratha threat to British rule in Central India at the time of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

Prime Minister of India hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of the historical site, Red Fort, Delhi, On August 15th.

The flag of independent India was first unfurled from the ramparts of the Red Fort by none other than Jawahar Lal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India on the morning of 15 August 1947. This practice of unfurling of flag followed by a speech by the Prime Minister continues each year on Independence Day. Just after World War II, the Red Fort had been the scene of the famous trial of the Indian National Army.

Etymology

Most of the forts in India are actually castles or fortresses. But when the British Government in India were cataloging them in the 17th–19th century they used the word forts as it was common in Britain then. All fortifications whether European or Indian were termed forts. Thereafter this became the common usage in India. In local languages the fort names are suffixed by local word for fort thus usage of the Sanskrit worddurga, or Hindi word qila or the word garh or gad in Rajasthan, Assam and Maharashtra is common.^[1] For example, Suvarnadurg,Mehrangarh, Sudhagad etc.

Forts in ancient India

Three major methods were used for the construction of ancient Indian forts. The first consisted of earthen ramparts. Often they were constructed of the sand which was dug out of the ditch surrounding the fort. The second of rubble with earth on the outside which was more sturdy. The third type of construction was with stone and masonry work. The last was the strongest. Often materials from demolished forts were reused in the building of new forts.^[2]

By 4 BCE, fortified cities were common in India. The largest ones were between the city of Mathura (on the Yamuna river) and Magadha (on the Ganges). Another series of forts in the south, was on the Ujjain(on the Narmada)leading into the Deccan. These are inferred by the remains of fort walls and bastions seen on excavation at Rajagriha and at several sites in the Gangetic plain notably Kaushambi. At the latter site huge walls of burnt brick, which look like they have been battered. There does not seem to be any formal planning of these forts.^[3]

There are few descriptions of these ancient structures. The most noted is the one by Megasthenes, an ambasaddor of Seleucus I Nicator to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. He describes Patliputra as being guarded by a ditch with wooden walls. The fort had 570 towers and 54 gates with colonnaded halls decorated with gold and silver. One such hall has been excavated and is one of the oldest stone structures in India

Types of Ancient Indian Forts

Detail on stupa at Sanchi showing evidence of crenallations and embrasures

Though most of the structures have been decayed and are lost, India's legacy of ancient forts is seen mostly in the shastras(ancient Indian treatises) and in the reliefs on stupas.^[5] On some of the early relief work, the carvings indicate that ancient Indian forts has crenallations, embrasures and sloping walls.^[3] The Arthashastra the Indian treatise on military strategy describes six major types of forts differentiated by their major mode of defense.

• Jal durg:a fortress surrounded by water, also known as audaka-durga and ab-durga. There are two subtypes - the island fortress, or antardvipa-durga, and the plain fortress or sthala-durga. The sea or the waters of a river wash the first like Murud-Janjira.The latter is encircled with artificial moats filled with water or irrigated by a river. Plain fortresses are naturally much more common.

• Giri durgs: Giri-durga, or parvata-durga, is a hill or mountain fortress. There are three varieties:prantara-durga, giri-parshva-durga and guha-durga. Prantara-durga is a fortress built on the summit (usually flat) of a hill or a mountain. This was the most common type in the Middle Ages, and the best examples are the castles of Gwalior, Mehrangarh and Chittor . In giri-parshva-durga both major civilian structures and fortifications extend down the slope of a hill or mountain though the summit is certainly included into the defence system, too. The living quarters of a guha-durga fortress are situated in a valley surrounded by high, impassable hills. The hills house a chain of outposts and signal towers connected by extensive defensive walls.

• Vana durg or vrikshya-durga, would be surrounded on all sides with a dense, impassable forest over a distance of at least 4 kroshas(14.6 km). Variations were the khanjana-durga, built on fens and encircled with thorny woods, and the sthambha-durga, erected in the jungles among high trees but lacking sufficient sources of water.

• Dhanu durg Dhanvana, dhanva, or maru-durga are desert fortresses, usually to be found in an arid area bare of trees, grass or sources of water over a distance of no less than 5 yojanas (73 km), hence its other name, nirudaka-durga, or waterless fortress. An airina-durga is built on saline soil of barren tract or on fens impregnated with saline water and protected by the thorny bushes that grow there.

• Mahi durg There are three types of mahi-durga or earth fortress. Mrid-durga are encircled with earthen walls; the approaches to panka-durga are protected by fens or quicksand; and parigha-durga are surrounded by walls made of earth and stone or brick, their height exceeding 5.4m and their width constituting half of the height.

• Nar durg or fortress with men, was defended by a large and loyal army of proven warriors, and was well supplied with arms. It was usually a city fortress, well populated with a substantial garrison. It was also called nara-durga and bala-durga.

Each type of fortress had different advantages.Manu (author of the Manusmṛti a Vedic text) considered the hill forts offers the best defenses. Some Sanskrit text also consider hill forts to be the abode of gods and hence auspicious. Manu also considers the disadvantages of other fortresses. A fortress surrounded by water often sheltered reptiles and snakes, which made for a rapid spread of disease; on the other hand, reptiles and snakes could deter an assault on a fortress, and disease could force the enemy to lift a siege.Earth fortresses often swarmed with rats and rodents, which might in the long run eat away their foundations. Monkeys plagued the inhabitants of arboreal fortresses, while a fortress that housed a lot of people had to be kept well supplied with food and water to feed all those mouths.However the Mahabharataconsiders Nri-durga to be the best defensive structures.^[6] Most of the time a combination of defenses were used to guard the fort.Ranthambhore Castle, for example, stands on a hill (giri-durga) and used to be surrounded by dense forests (vana-durga). When a considerable garrison of soldiers was billeted in it, the castle could also be classified as nri-durga.

The method of planning of the fort is also described along with the layout of the roads. Kautilya suggests that the roads should be laid along the four cardinal directions with a temple at the centre. The Kings house should be at the north.

One of the oldest and most well preserved of such structures are the excavated ruins of ancient fortifications at Sisupalgarh in Orissa. It is estimated to date from the 3rd century BCE and was in occupation for a thousand years at least. Outlines of the fort indicate it had eight gates and thick walls. The western gate was quite elaborate. In 2005, sonar analyais suggested the presence of a deep moat around the fort.

Construction

Stone was the main material for building fortifications in medieval India. Walls were erected by one of the following three construction methods. A wall could be an earthen rampart faced with stone on both sides. The rampart was built using the earth excavated while digging the ditch, with three-quarters of it used for building a rampart and one-quarter for levelling out the surface inside the fortress and in front of the ditch. Facing the rampart with stone allowed for the erection of higher and steeper walls than those possible with a purely earthen rampart. The structure had a substantial shortcoming, however: an earthen core accumulated water, which could destroy the stone shell. Drainage channels were therefore installed along the length of the wall from top to bottom.

The second method consisted of filling the space between the outer layers with earth mixed with rubble. This core was considerably harder than simply using rammed earth. The third and most advanced method involved the use of mortar. A rubble-built wall fastened with mortar was strong and long lasting. Construction methods depended, however, on the materials available.^[13]

In medieval India, several reports exist of the practice of burying humans either dead or alive in the foundations of fort walls, to ensure their stability, being widely followed. It was believed that the ghosts of those sacrificed as such would keep evil spirits away. During the building of the Sri Qila, Delhi Alauddin Khilji is reported to have buried 8,000 skulls of Mughals killed by him into the foundation.^[14] During the building ofPurandar Fort one its bastions gave way several times. The king of Berar then ordered his minister a Esaji Naik Chive to bury a first born son and his wife into the foundation of the bastion. This was promptly done and after a further offering of gold and bricks. When the bastion was finished Esaji Naik was given possession of the fort and the father of the sacrificed boy was rewarded with two villages. This custom was also followed by Shivaji when he built his forts.^[14]

Many Indian fortifications have parapets with peculiarly shaped merlons and complicated systems of loopholes, which differ substantially from similar structures in other countries. Typical Indian merlons were semicircular and pointed at the top, although they were sometimes fake: the parapet may be solid and the merlons shown in relief on the outside (as at Chittorgarh). What was unique is the arrangement and direction of loopholes. Loopholes were made both in the merlons themselves, and under the crenels. They could either look forward (to command distant approaches) or downward (to command the foot of the wall). Sometimes a merion was pierced with two or three loopholes, but more often, one loophole was divided into two or three slits by horizontal or vertical partitions.The shape of loopholes, as well as the shape of merlons, need not have been the same everywhere in the castle, as shown by Kumbhalgarh

Forts constructed by the British

An old 18th Century painting of Fort St George, Madras

With the advent of the East India Company, the British established trading posts along the coast. The need for security against local rajas as well as other European rival nations led to the construction of forts at each post. Mumbai fort, Fort William in Kolkata, Fort St George in Chennai were the main bastions constructed. These cities developed from the small townships outside the forts. Parsimony of the East India Company, non-availability of trained engineers and use of local materials and artisans resulted in the simple design and construction initially. The vulnerability of these earlier forts, hostilities with the French and the growing might of the Company resulted in stronger and more complex designs for the second round of construction, the design of Fort St George reflecting the influences of the French engineer Vauban.

State of Castles Today

Although no Indian forts were destroyed by sudden disasters, there are several which were abandoned due to the ambitions of their rulers and have consequently deteriorated over time. Very few castles have survived unchanged since the early Middle Ages or even since the 14th-15th centuries: most of those built in the 10th-15th centuries were later rebuilt and altered. Castles were still used as living quarters until the 19th-20th centuries, and so were continually modified. Even now, some of them are private property

Forts in Medieval India

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur a Giri durg

Bastions of Murud-Janjira a Jal durg

With the advent of the Muslims, closely followed by the introduction of artillery in the 16th century there were several changes to the construction and design of forts. These changes were similar to the changes that took place in Western forts with the advent of gunpowder, i.e. the lowering of walls, thickening of walls, further pushing out of bastions etc.^[7] The construction of a citadel in the centre and putting in more area between the citadel and the walls was characteristic of Muslim forts (influenced in turn by the Norman motte and bailey). Classic examples of such structures are the Golkonda and the Berar fort.^[8]

The gates of medieval Indian forts were highly decorated.^[9] Two distinct styles are seen. The Hindu style with a lintel and the Mughal style with an arch. Gates in Indian forts were often high and wide to allow elephants to pass.^[10] Often they had rows of sharp, stout iron spikes to dissuade the breaking down of the gate by the elephants of an invading army.^[11] Such a gate with spikes can be seen on the Shaniwarwada fort, Pune. The walls of the forts were often looked higher from the outside than the inside as the forts made use of the natural rock formations on hills. This not only gave an illustion of greater height but also lead to the lower walls of the fort to be entirely made up of natural rock providing almost a perfect defense against the use of a battering ram or elephants to tear down the walls

CASTLE SANT'ANGELO

For the town with the same name, see Castel Sant'Angelo, Lazio.

Coordinates: 41.903064°N 12.466355°E

Castel Sant'Angelo from the bridge. The top statue depicts the angelfrom whom the building derives its name.

Sant'Angelo Castle and Bridge

Sant'Angelo Castle and Bridge

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum.

Hadrian's tomb

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole,^[1]was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 135 AD and 139 AD. Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death inBaiae in 138 AD, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138 AD. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217 AD. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury room deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius facing straight onto the mausoleum – it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the right bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroqueadditions of statuary of angels holding aloft elements of the Passion of Christ.

Destruction

Much of the tomb contents and decoration has been lost since the building's conversion into a military fortress in 401 and inclusion by Flavius Augustus Honorius in the Aurelian Walls. The urns and ashes were scattered by Visigothic looters in Alaric's sacking of Rome in 410, and the original decorative bronze and stone statuary was thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in 537, as recounted byProcopius. An unusual survival, however, is the capstone of a funerary urn (most probably that of Hadrian), which made its way to Saint Peter's Basilica and was recycled in a massive Renaissance baptistery. Thatspolia from the tomb had been used in the post-Roman period was already noted in the 16th century - Giorgio Vasari writes:

...in order to build churches for the use of the Christians, not only were the most honoured temples of the idols [ie pagan Roman gods] destroyed, but in order to ennoble and decorate Saint Peter's with more ornaments than it then possessed, they took away the stone columns from the tomb of Hadrian, now the castle of Sant'Angelo, as well as many other things which we now see in ruins.^[2]

Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name.

Papal fortress, residence and prison

The view from Castel Sant'Angelo towards Vatican City

The popes converted the structure into a castle, from the 14th century; Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St. Peter's Basilica by a covered fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo. The fortress was the refuge of Pope Clement VII from the siege of Charles V's Landsknechte during the Sack of Rome (1527), in whichBenvenuto Cellini describes strolling the ramparts and shooting enemy soldiers.

Leo X built a chapel with a fine Madonna by Raffaello da Montelupo. In 1536 Montelupo also created a marble statue of Saint Michael holding his sword after the 590 plague (as described above) to surmount the Castel.^[3] Later Paul III built a rich apartment, to ensure that in any future siege the Pope had an appropriate place to stay.

Montelupo's statue was replaced by a bronze statue of the same subject, executed by the Flemish sculptor Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, in 1753. Verschaffelt's is still in place, though Montelupo's can be seen in an open court in the interior of the Castle.

The Papal state also used Sant'Angelo as a prison; Giordano Bruno, for example, was imprisoned there for six years. Executions were made in the small interior square. As a prison, it was also the setting for the third act of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca from whose ramparts the eponymous heroine of the opera leaps to her death.

Popular culture

The Castel Sant'Angelo appeared in Dan Brown's 2000 novel Angels & Demons. The location was the secret lair for the Hassassin and was seen as the last existing church of the Illuminati. The book also emphasized the Passetto di Borgo as a secret way of getting from the Vatican to the castle. It also appears in the 2009 motion picture, Angels & Demons, as one of the locations where a clue that leads to the papal assassin resides.

The castle appeared in the film Roman Holiday in a scene taking place on barges on the river below.

In Puccini's opera, Tosca, the Castel is where Cavaradossi is held prisoner. After murdering Scarpia in his private room at the Palazzo Farnese, Floria Tosca goes to the Castel Sant'Angelo, safe conducts in hand, where her lover, Mario Cavaradossi is to be executed. She has been led to believe it will be a mock execution and is horrified to find her lover dead. Rather than be arrested by Scarpia's henchmen, she throws herself from the rooftop.

The castle is one of the settings of Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, books in the Hyperion Cantos by author Dan Simmons. In the novels it has been relocated, along with large parts of the Vatican to the fictional planet Pacem. It serves as a prison and site of the torture of several protagonists in the novels, which include a resurgent version of the Catholic Church being the major power in human society.

In 1980, the American punk rock band The Ramones played a concert outside the castle and also the hard rock band Kiss played an outside show at the Castel.

In the Trinity Blood novels, a castle called San Angelo is the seat of power for the Catholic Church, though it is not known whether this is the same castle as the one in real life.

The Castel appears in the 2009 video game Assassin's Creed 2 and also more prominently in the game's 2010 sequel, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. In both games it is used as the official residence of Pope Alexander VI and his children, Cesare Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia. The Castel is protected by the Papal Guard as well as many Roman guard. During Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the Castel is infiltrated by the main character, Ezio Auditore, in an attempt to rescue Caterina Sforza and again later when trying to recover one of the "Pieces of Eden". It appears again in the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood downloadable content, The Da Vinci Disappearance, when Ezio must infiltrate the Castel to steal two paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci. Also in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood you can gain a trophy for jumping from the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo with a parachute.

The design of the McKinley National Memorial in Canton, Ohio, which is the final resting place of US President William McKinley and his family, was based upon the Tomb of Hadrian according to its architect, Harold Van Buren Magonigle.

BRAN CASTLE

Bran Castle (Dracula Castle Di Rumania)

Castel Bran Rumania

Metrotainment.net – Siapa yang tidak tahu tentang legenda menyeramkan tentang makhluk penghisap darah yang disebut “drakula”.
Legenda ini bahkan sering dibuat untuk film – film horror garapan sutradara terkenal Hollywood. Tetapi apakah anda tahu bahwa sebenarnya film – film itu di inspirasi dari sebuah kastil yang berada di Transylvania, Rumania yang disebut kastil “Bran”.
Kastil Bran telah memiliki reputasi sebagai salah satu dari monumen terkenal dengan arsitektur bergaya era pertengahan, dikenal oleh wisatawan seluruh dunia sebagai “Kastil Drakula”.
Kastil Bran telah memiliki reputasi sebagai salah satu dari monumen terkenal dengan arsitektur bergaya era pertengahan, dikenal oleh wisatawan seluruh dunia sebagai “Kastil Drakula”.

Bran Castle (Entrance)

Di Rumania terkenal dengan bangunan yang mempunyai banyak bangunan yang tua dan mempunyai arsitektur yang indah. Kastil Bran ini menjadi salah satu bangunan yang memiliki sejarah penting dan sangat terkenal di seluruh dunia. Kastil yang mempunyai jumlah 17 ruangan ini, merupakan salah satu properti termahal di Rumania, dengan mempunyai nilai jual sekitar 140 juta dollar.
Kastil ini sendiri dibangun pada tahun 1212 oleh perkumpulan pedagang dari kota Brasov. Tujuan dibangun kastil ini pada mulanya untuk memenuhi kepentingan kapal-kapal yang melewati ngarai kecil Rucar-Bran yang melintasi pegunungan Carpathian.
Pada tahun 1920an, Kota Brasov memberikan kastil Bran kepada Ratu Rumania, Maria. Tujuan dari pemberian kastil ini adalah sebagai tanda terima kasih atas kontribusi Ratu Maria terhadap negara. Beliau telah memugar dan mewariskannya kepada putrinya, Putri Ileana.

Castel Bran Aka Dracula Castle

Pada tahun 1948, ketika kerajaan Rumania berhasil diruntuhkan oleh tentara Uni Soviet, kastil ini diambil oleh pemerintah Rumania pro-Soviet dan dibuka untuk umum pada tahun 1956.
Kastil ini dibuat menjadi sebuah galeri museum sejarah seni abad pertengahan.
Karena kelalaian dari para pejabat yang mengatur di Kastil ini selama bertahun – tahun, kastil ini mengalami kerusakan yang sangat parah dan akhirnya mengalami pemugaran secara besar – besaran pada tahun 1987 dan tahun 1993.
Sesudah rezim Komunis hilang dari Rumania, pada tahun 1989, keluarga Hadsburg yang merupakan pemilik asli kastil itu mengajukan gugatan hukum untuk mendapatkan kembali kastil ini.
Setelah bertahun – tahun berjuang akhirnya gugatan itu berhasil dimenangkan oleh keluarga Hadsburg dan mendapatkan kastil ini kembali.
Keluarga Hadsburg bermaksud untuk menjadikan kastil ini museum berkualitas tinggi yang terbuka untuk umum.

Castel Bran Aka Dracula Castle Rumania

Sebenarnya popularitas Kastil Bran ini bukan dari sejarah peperangannya. Kastil ini menjadi terkenal setelah seorang penulis bernama Bram Stoker menulis novel terkenalnya berjudul “Dracula”, dimana tokoh utamanya adalah Pangeran Dracula, yang juga dikenal sebagai “Vampir dari Transylvania.”
Sebenarnya tokoh di novel Bram Stoker ini tidak pernah ada, baik di dalam sejarah Rumania maupun di dalam cerita rakyat Rumania. Tokoh Drakula ini, sebetulnya, terinspirasi oleh sisi kelam kepribadian tokoh sejarah Rumania yang bernama Pangeran Vlad Tepes. Pangeran ini memerintah kota Vallachia, daerah bagian Rumania, selama abad ke-15.
Ia diingat karena hukuman keji dan sadis yang ia lakukan terhadap pasukan Turki, yakni setiap tentara musuh yang tertangkap ditusuk dengan tombak dan dibiarkan agar mereka meninggal secara perlahan-lahan.
Hal ini yang membuat Vlad mendapat julukan sebagai “Vlad si Penombak”. Ternyata Vlad melakukan hukuman kejinya ini sebagai ajang balas dendam atas penganiayaan yang ia terima selama masa kecilnya ketika di Turki. Ia juga memerintah Vallachia dengan tangan besi.

Dracula Castle (Bran Castle) Rumania

Kisah Vlad yang menjelaskan karakter dasar dari tokoh Drakula telah berlalu, tetapi hubungannya dengan kastil Bran ini masih saja tetap tidak jelas. Kastil Bran yang disebut juga sebagai Kastil Drakula oleh wisatawan asal Barat yang berkunjung ke Rumania dalam rangka pencarian Drakula.
Mereka sangat dikejutkan oleh bagaimana pintu masuk menuju rumah besar Transylvanian menyerupai kastil seperti yang digambarkan oleh Stoker dalam karya novelnya. Karena hal inilah yang menyebabkan kastil Bran disebut kastil Drakula.

castle disebuah pulau

Bangunan megah yang berdiri di sebuah “pulau” di hamparan Danau Galve yang airnya sedingin es, terbentang kastil yang berdiri kokoh sejak abad 14 di Trakai, Lithuania.
Kastil ini dibangun oleh Grand Duke Kstutis dan diselesaikan oleh putranya, Vytautas the Great yang meninggal di kastil ini pada 1430. Hanya ada satu jalan darat yang menghubungkan ke kastil yang berada di tengah danau, konon memang dibuat agar pasukan musuh tak gampang menembus pada masa perang abad pertengahan dulu.
Saat masuk ke gerbang kastil , kita segera mendapati arsitektur klasik gaya gothic yang sangat kental. di tengah bangunan berupa istana yang dikelilingi oleh dinding tebal sebagai benteng pertahanan. melangkah ke dalam bangunan sentral, di sana dihiasi dengan kaca patri dan lukisan murai yang menggambarkan kehidupan Kstutis pada masanya.
Imajinasi akan semakin liar membawa kita ke abad pertengahan, kita bisa membayangkan perang zaman dulu, dari gudang peluru, meriam-meriam, hingga tempat tinggalprajurit yang ada di sana.
Jika kita datang pada saat Festival Abad Pertengahan (Medieval Festival) yang terakhir diadakan bulan Juni lalu, kita akan benar-benar merasakan suasana abad pertengahan, lengkap dengan ksatria dan kehidupan pada masa itu.
Kita juga bisa larut dengan semua suasana itu, mulai dari menikmati kerajinan perkakas zaman tersebut, perang di zaman pertengahan, ikut berdansa dan berpesta

castle matsumoto di japan

Istana Matsumoto (松本城, Matsumoto-jō^?) adalah istana yang terletak di kota Matsumoto, Prefektur Nagano, Jepang. Kasitl ini dapat dijangkau dari Tokyo melalui jalan dan kereta api.

Kastil ini dibangun sebagai benteng pertahanan selama masa perang. Pada tahun 1550, daerah Matsumoto di bawah aturan klan Takeda dan Tokugawa Leyasu. Ketika Toyotomi Hideyoshi memindah Leyasu ke wilayah Kanto

Kastil ini disempurnakan di akhir abad 16 dengan mempertahankan interior kayu asli dan bebatuan di luarnya. matsumoto adalah adalah kastil daratan karena tidak dibangun di atas bukit atau di tengah-tengah sungai.

Kastil ini dibangun sebagai benteng pertahanan di masa perang. Di tahun 1550 daerah Matsumoto di bawah aturan klan Takeda dan Tokugawa Leyasu. Ketika Toyotomi Hideyoshi memindah Leyasu ke wilayah Kanto, ia menempatkan Ishikawa Norimasa untuk memimpin Matsumoto.

Norimasa dan anak-anaknya membangun menara dan beberapa bagian lain dari kastil ini. Kastil Matsumoko juga dikenal dengan sebutan kastil gagak karena dindingnya yang berwarna hitam dan atapnya terlihat seperti sayap burung gagak yang dikepakkan.

castile edunburg.....

scotlandia........