Schloss Elsum is a historic castle located in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. The castle was originally built in the 13th century as a fortified manor house, and it was later expanded and renovated over the centuries. The castle has a rectangular shape with four corner towers and a moat.
The interior of the castle features a variety of rooms, including a chapel, a great hall, and several bedrooms. The castle also has a wine cellar and a dungeon. In the 18th century, the castle was renovated in the Baroque style, and a new wing was added.
Elsum castle was mainly destroyed in 1945 during the Second World War and restored in the 1950s.
Goryōkaku (五稜郭) (literally, 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.
Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō and Jules Brunet. Their plans was based on the work of the French architect Vauban. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.
The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect the Tsugaru Strait against a possible invasion by the Meiji government.
Goryōkaku is famous as the site of the last battle of the Boshin War.