Inveraray Castle, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom

Inveraray Castle is a country house which has been the seat of the Duke of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell, since the 17th century. Work on the castle began in the 1750s, in Gothic revival style. Later additions included a third floor with dormer windows and steep conical roofs. The village of Inveraray was moved in the 1770s to give the castle a more secluded setting.

Designers who worked on the house include William Adam and Roger Morris; the interior includes a number of neoclassical rooms created for the 5th Duke by Robert Mylne. These are among the rooms open to the public.

In 1975, a devastating fire struck Inveraray and for some time the 12th Duke and his family lived in the castle's basement, while restorations requiring a worldwide fund raising drive were carried out. Today the castle is open to visitors. Its collection includes more than 1,300 pikes, muskets, swords and other weapons.

The 13th Duke and his family live in private apartments occupying two floors and set between two of the castle's crenellated circular towers. Recent renovations included the installation of the house's first central heating.

References:

Wikipedia

Castles and fortifications in United Kingdom

User Reviews

Michael McRoberts (15 months ago)
Great experience, fabulous historic site. Our family really enjoyed soaking in the history.

Anne Miller (15 months ago)
Castle was closed but could walk around it. I have been before and enjoyed inside the castle and gardens

Joanne Rawlinson (2 years ago)
We couldn't go in as it was closed but we walked up to the home and it looks beautiful. We will have to come back to the lovely little town and castle

EnaWena (2 years ago)
Great family day out for a historic journey through Scotland’s kings and queens, I do not recommend for kids as there is a lot of reading. Fantastic views and amazing gardens. It is quite costly but I would say it’s worth it. Great walk up the hill to the lookout area, I suggest taking lots of water/food. Nice gift shop with scrumptious shortbread!

James Gemmell (2 years ago)
Lovely attraction to the town but shuts down from November to Easter. The town has great pubs,restaurants and shops

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Frans.Sellies

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Kromeriz Castle and Gardens

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens and described as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese's work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese's death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.

After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian's last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.

UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

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