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Trebnje Castle dates from year the 13th century and was first mentioned in written sources in 1386. The original owners were the lords of Trebnje from Carinthia, while it was later run by the Ortenbuger, the Counts of Celje, the Hapsburgs and others, and was from 1812 to 1824 owned even by the local missionary Frederic Irenaeus Baraga.
The castle retained many ancient sections – a square tower with Roman foundations, a round tower from the time of the Ottoman Wars – and was completed to the way it is today in the 16th century. A stone lion from Roman times reigns on top of the castle stairs. The castle was extended in the 17th and 18th century. It owes its current look to a 19th-century remodelling in the historicist style.
References:The city walls of Avila were built in the 11th century to protect the citizens from the Moors. They have been well maintained throughout the centuries and are now a major tourist attraction as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors can walk around about half of the length of the walls.
The layout of the city is an even quadrilateral with a perimeter of 2,516 m. Its walls, which consist in part of stones already used in earlier constructions, have an average thickness of 3 m. Access to the city is afforded by nine gates of different periods; twin 20 m high towers, linked by a semi-circular arch, flank the oldest ones, Puerta de San Vicente and Puerta del Alcázar.