Fortified architecture across the catalogue: the castles of the Aosta Valley and Slovakia, the kremlins and frontier fortresses of Russia, the Danube strongholds of Serbia and Bulgaria, Lahore Fort and Hwaseong.
63 programs
Perched on a hill above the plain not far from Tirana, the castle of Preza keeps its walls and its tower, and shelters within them a small mosque with a slender minaret. Fortress and place of prayer share a single enclosure, and a commanding view of the country below.
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On the Danube at Vidin stands Baba Vida, the best-preserved medieval fortress in Bulgaria. Inland at Kula, the remains of Castra Martis mark a late Roman fort. Together they show how the same frontier was defended by two empires, many centuries apart.
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Rising straight from the Danube at Vidin, Baba Vida is the best-preserved medieval fortress in Bulgaria. Its walls, towers, moat and courtyards can still be walked from end to end, on a site that had already been fortified in Roman times.
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This programme pairs two fortified sites of north-western Bulgaria: Castra Martis, a late Roman fort at Kula, and Baba Vida, the medieval castle on the Danube at Vidin. Read together, they trace the long defence of a frontier region across successive empires.
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Perched on a limestone plateau, Chufut-Kale is a cave town of rock-hewn rooms, cisterns and defensive walls, long associated with the Karaite community of Crimea.
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In the forests west of Prague, Krivoklat and Karlstejn stand as complementary faces of medieval Bohemia: a Gothic hunting residence and a hilltop castle raised to shelter the imperial regalia.
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Round towers with red conical roofs, wall-walks and fortified gates: Tallinn's medieval enceinte survives in exceptional measure and still frames the city it once protected.
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Perched on a rocky spur above the vineyards of the Corbières, Aguilar is one of the fortresses known as the Cathar castles. Its concentric walls and towers were built to hold a medieval frontier between two kingdoms.
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In the wine country of eastern Georgia, the cathedral of Alaverdi rises above its enclosure walls and the Alazani valley. One of the tallest medieval churches in the country, it remains a working monastery.
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Above a reservoir on the Georgian Military Highway, the towers and churches of Ananuri form one of the country's most photogenic fortified ensembles, built by a dynasty that controlled the route into the mountains.
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Known locally as the buried fort, Benteng van den Bosch was built by the Dutch colonial administration in East Java. Its low ramparts, brick galleries and inner courtyard survive on the riverbank at Ngawi.
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On a sandstone cliff north of Tel Aviv, the ruins of Apollonia-Arsuf overlook the Mediterranean. The site was a coastal town in antiquity and later a Crusader stronghold, whose moat and towers were carved directly out of the rock.
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On the beach at Ashdod stand the remains of a fortress long known as Qal'at al-Mina. Its sandstone walls, round towers and gateways belong to the chain of strongholds that once watched over this stretch of the Mediterranean coast.
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Perched on the lip of the escarpment high above the Jordan valley, Belvoir is one of the best-preserved Crusader castles in the region. Built by the Hospitaller order on a concentric plan, it resisted a long siege before falling.
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Gamla occupies a steep spur in the Golan, shaped like the hump that gave it its name. A Jewish town destroyed during the revolt against Rome, it holds one of the oldest known synagogues and today shelters a colony of griffon vultures.
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Perched on a hill above Jericho, the fortress of Kypros commanded the route from the Jordan valley up to Jerusalem. Its cisterns, bath installations and terraces survive on a steep, wind-exposed summit.
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Rising from the flat farmland of the Sharon plain, the mound of Qaqun carries the remains of a fortress that commanded the routes between the coast and the interior. Crusader and later Islamic-period building phases are still legible in its weathered masonry.
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Set at the sources of the Yarkon river, Tel Afek carries thousands of years of occupation. A Roman city stood here, and above it a later fortress still raises its square walls and corner towers over water, reeds and open parkland.
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Under the streets of Acre lies the fortress of the Knights Hospitaller: a complex of vaulted halls, courtyards and passages buried when the Ottoman city was built above it, and now excavated. It is a highlight of the World Heritage old city.
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Beside the Sea of Galilee, the fortress of Tiberias raises walls of dark basalt above the waterfront. Founded in the Crusader period and rebuilt under Ottoman rule, it stands as a compact record of the town's contested history.
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On a terrace overlooking the Aosta Valley, the Royal Castle of Sarre owes its present form to Victor Emmanuel II, who made it the base for his hunting expeditions in the mountains that later became the Gran Paradiso National Park.
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The interiors of the Royal Castle of Sarre are unlike any other Savoy residence: whole galleries decorated with ibex horns and chamois trophies, alongside apartments, portraits and furnishings that recount the dynasty's alpine life.
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Introd stands where the Val di Rhêmes and the Valsavarenche open off the main Aosta Valley. Its castle, rebuilt over the centuries around an irregular, almost circular plan, watches over the meadows and larch woods at the gateway to the Gran Paradiso.
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In the Aosta Valley, where almost every rocky spur carries a tower, the castle of La Mothe overlooks the village that grew in its shadow. Stone walls, narrow lanes and high pastures compose a picture of alpine life shaped by the fortress above.
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Set apart from the main road, Montmayeur belongs to the chain of castles that guard the Aosta Valley. Reached through woods and pasture, it presents a strong silhouette against the mountains and a landscape of great cinematic quality.
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Perched on a rocky shelf above Châtillon, Ussel belongs to the family of monobloc castles: a compact rectangular mass with corner towers, closer to a fortified residence than to a walled enclosure. Long abandoned, it has been consolidated and reopened.
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At the narrowest point of the lower Aosta Valley, a rocky outcrop blocks the passage. The stronghold built on it delayed Napoleon's army during its crossing of the Alps in 1800 — and was demolished on his orders soon afterwards.
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Rebuilt by the House of Savoy in the nineteenth century, Fort Bard is a complete system of stepped works climbing the rock. Restored after long abandonment, it now houses museums and exhibition spaces within its casemates and courtyards.
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Graines occupies a rocky knoll above Brusson, in the Val d'Ayas. What survives is a ring of curtain walls enclosing the remains of a keep and a small chapel — the archaic type of alpine castle, built for control of a valley rather than for comfort.
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The Roman walls of Aosta still carry a series of towers reworked in the Middle Ages. Two have become emblems of the city: the Leper's Tower, named after the recluse whose story inspired a famous novella, and the massive Bramafam on the enceinte's angle.
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Built for the della Rovere on designs by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the Rocca of Mondavio is a textbook of early modern military architecture: sloping walls, a polygonal keep and firing galleries conceived against artillery. It survives essentially intact.
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Saint-Germain belongs to the long line of fortified sites that guard the Aosta Valley. Set above the valley floor, its walls and the rock beneath them have merged into a single form, in a landscape of vineyards, woods and high summits.
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San Leo stands on a sheer block of rock in the Montefeltro, reached by a single road cut into the cliff. Below the fortress lie two of the region's great early churches, while the citadel is remembered as the prison of the adventurer Cagliostro.
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Built as a summer residence for Queen Margherita of Savoy at Gressoney, Castel Savoia is an eclectic composition of turrets and gables set in an alpine garden, looking out towards the Monte Rosa massif at the head of the Lys valley.
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Ringed by two circuits of walls, Gradara commands the hills between the Marche and Romagna. A Malatesta stronghold and a coveted prize among rival houses, it is also the setting tradition assigns to Paolo and Francesca, the lovers of Dante's Inferno.
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Above the town of Verrès, in Italy's Aosta Valley, a castle built as a single monolithic cube dominates a strategic alpine corridor. Held by the Challant family, it fuses fortress and residence in one uncompromising block of stone.
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Perched on a hilltop in the centre of Malta, Mdina was the island's capital for centuries. Enclosed by bastions, its narrow shaded lanes, noble palaces and cathedral have earned it the name of the Silent City.
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Below the slopes of Mount Rumija, the old town of Bar was abandoned after conflict and lies in ruins. Churches, a mosque, an aqueduct and a clock tower record the successive powers that ruled this stretch of the Adriatic.
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Rising from the sands of the Cholistan desert in southern Punjab, Derawar Fort presents an immense square enclosure ringed by dozens of towering bastions in patterned brick, with a royal mosque and necropolis alongside.
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Rebuilt by Akbar and enlarged by three of his successors, Lahore Fort gathers audience halls, marble pavilions and mirrored chambers behind monumental walls. Four centuries of Mughal ambition, craftsmanship and conquest remain legible across a single citadel.
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Built by the Spanish at the mouth of the Pasig river, Fort Santiago anchors the walled city of Intramuros. Bastions, gates and dungeons recount three centuries of colonial rule, the imprisonment of José Rizal and the devastation of 1945.
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Seat of kings and of the Polish parliament, the Royal Castle saw the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Destroyed by German forces during the war, it was reconstructed decades later and now anchors Warsaw's UNESCO-listed old town.
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Built to defend the entrance of Lagos harbour, this small seventeenth-century fort is reached by a drawbridge over a moat. Its ramparts, tiled chapel and sea batteries recall the Atlantic ambitions and vulnerabilities of southern Portugal.
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Capital citadel of Tatarstan, the Kazan Kremlin encloses within its white limestone walls the Qol Sharif Mosque, the Annunciation Cathedral and the leaning Söyembikä Tower. A UNESCO World Heritage site where two civilisations occupy one enclosure.
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West of Saint Petersburg, the stone fortress of Koporye rises on a rocky outcrop above a ravine. Founded by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century and long held by Novgorod, its towers and curtain walls survive as a striking ruin.
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Built in 1492 on the orders of Ivan III, Ivangorod Fortress faces the castle of Narva across the river. Nowhere else in Europe do two medieval strongholds confront each other so directly, one on each side of a modern border.
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In the Pskov region, the medieval stone fortress of Izborsk crowns a hill above a valley of springs and lakes. Its massive towers and walls, blackened by weather, mark one of the earliest recorded settlements in the Russian north-west.
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On an island in the Vuoksi River at Priozersk, Korela Fortress guarded the route between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. Swedish, Finnish and Russian in turn, it is now a museum within its earth and stone defences.
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At the confluence of the Velikaya and the Pskova, the Krom is the fortified heart of Pskov. Behind its long white walls rises the Trinity Cathedral, seat of authority in a city that governed itself for centuries.
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South of Moscow, only fragments remain of the white-stone kremlin of Serpukhov. On its cathedral hill, a stretch of wall and the surviving churches recall a fortress that once guarded the southern approach to the capital.
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Behind its red brick walls and towers, rebuilt in the late 15th century by Italian architects, the Moscow Kremlin encloses Cathedral Square, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the palaces of Russian power. A UNESCO World Heritage site.
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Ringed by water and marshland in the flat north of Serbia, Bač is among the best-preserved medieval fortresses of the Danube plain. Its brick curtain walls and tall keep record a frontier held, lost and held again.
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Standing on the ridge where the Sava joins the Danube, Belgrade Fortress has been rebuilt by Romans, Byzantines, Serbian rulers, Ottomans and Habsburgs. Today its ramparts enclose the city's most popular park.
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The walls of Niš Fortress date from the Ottoman centuries but rest on far older foundations. Within the enclosure stands the Bali-beg Mosque, one of the city's oldest surviving Ottoman buildings, long used as an exhibition space.
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Facing Novi Sad across the Danube, Petrovaradin is one of Europe's great bastioned fortresses. Its ramparts, clock tower and vast underground galleries were designed to hold the river against any attacker.
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Raised in the fifteenth century as the capital of the Serbian Despotate, Smederevo is one of the largest lowland fortresses in Europe. Its triangular plan and twenty-odd towers still command the confluence with the Danube.
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Unusually, Kežmarok Castle stands within the town rather than above it. Built in the late Middle Ages and later remodelled as a noble residence, it now houses the museum of this historic Spiš town.
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Guarding the route between Hungary and Poland, Stará Ľubovňa Castle grew from medieval stronghold to aristocratic residence. Its walls kept watch over the Spiš towns pledged to the Polish crown for centuries.
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Above the village of Zborov in north-eastern Slovakia, the ruins of a medieval castle command the wooded ridges of the Šariš region. Consolidation work has made the site accessible again.
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Built at Suwon in the late eighteenth century by King Jeongjo, Hwaseong combines Korean and imported military engineering. Documented in exhaustive detail at the time, it could be restored precisely after wartime damage.
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Perched on the escarpment above Romney Marsh in Kent, Lympne Castle looks out over ground that was open water in Roman times. Below its walls lie the collapsed remains of a Roman fort of the Saxon Shore.
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Built for Francisco Piria, the entrepreneur who created the resort town of Piriapolis, this hillside residence combines Italianate grandeur with the esoteric interests of its owner. It is now a museum open to the public.
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On the Rambla in Montevideo stands the strangest building in the city: the labyrinthine residence of Humberto Pittamiglio, architect and student of alchemy, whose eclectic facade and symbol-laden interiors are now open as a cultural centre.
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