In 878 the East Frankish king Carloman of Bavaria dedicated the Treffen estates around Lake Ossiach to the Benedictine monastery of Ötting. In the late 10th century the lands passed to the Bishops of Passau and later to Emperor Henry II, who conferred them to a certain Count Ozi, affiliated with the Styrian Otakar dynasty and father of Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia.
A church probably already existed at Ossiach, when Count Ozi about 1024 established the Benedictine abbey, the first in the medieval Duchy of Carinthia. The first monks probably descended from Niederaltaich Abbey in Bavaria. Ozi's son Poppo succeeded in removing the proprietary monastery from the influence of the Salzburg archbishops and to affiliate it with the Patriarchate of Aquileia, confirmed by Emperor Conrad II in 1028. Upon the extinction of the Styrian Otakars in 1192, the Vogtei of Ossiach according to the Georgenberg Pact passed to the Austrian House of Babenberg. In 1282 it finally fell to the Habsburgs.
The Romanesque church itself was first mentioned in 1215, built on the groundplan of a basilica, with the tower above the crossing. Restored in a Late Gothic style after a fire in 1484, the abbey, a member of the Benedictine Salzburg Congregation from 1641, was extensively altered in the Baroque period, including stucco decoration of the Wessobrunner School.
Ossiach Abbey was dissolved by order of Emperor Joseph II in 1783, after which the buildings were used as a barracks. In 1816 the premises were largely demolished. Between 1872 and 1915 the few remaining buildings were again used as a barracks and as stabling. Since 1995 the premises have been owned by the administration of Carinthia. The church since the dissolution has served the local parish. Two stained glass windows were donated by Karl May in 1905, though according to recent research the popular writer had probably never visited Ossiach.


The Church of St Anne is in Aigburth Road, Aigburth, Liverpool, Merseyside, England.  It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Liverpool and the deanery of Liverpool South Childwall.  Its architecture is an early example of the Norman Revival style.


The church was built in 1836–37 to a design by Cunningham & Holme.  It was founded by a group of local merchants, John Moss, Charles Stewart Parker, John Abraham Tinne and Josias Booker and was consecrated in 1837.  In 1853–54 broad transepts were added and the chancel was extended.  The north and south galleries were removed in 1893–94 and in 1913–14 the chancel was further extended.
The church was damaged in an arson attack by Suffragettes on 16 December 1913. The altar and choir stalls were burned during a period when this movement to obtain votes for women was increasingly militant.


The church is built in ashlar stone with a slate roof in Norman Revival style.  Its plan consists of a west tower flanked by a baptistry to the north and a stair bay to the south, a four-bay nave, north and south transepts, and a three-bay chancel with the organ loft to the north and a vestry to the south.  The round-headed entrance is in the base of the tower with blind arcading and a diapered gable above it.  Over this is a clock face surrounded by a large rose motif.  The tower has paired two-light bell openings on each face over which is a cornice with corbels and a parapet with blind arcading.  The east window consists of three lancets and a rose window.  The west gallery is still present as are the galleries in the transepts.


WikiWeb_Church of Santa Catalina (Sevilla)_1

The original church was constructed sometime in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, but following an earthquake in 1356, the current church was rebuilt and has been enlarged over time. During the archeological excavation of the area, it was confirmed that the church was built on the site of a former mosque, and the theory that the tower was a reused minaret was ruled out. The church exhibits characteristics of both gothic and mudéjar architecture, although it has been renovated several times over the years.
The restoration works directed by the municipal architect Juan Talavera y Heredia between 1923 and 1930 culminated with the installation of a gothic facade from the fourteenth century Iglesia de Santa Lucía which now covers the original mudéjar door of the Church of Santa Catalina.


WikiWeb_Church of Santa Catalina (Sevilla)_0

The Church of Santa Catalina (Spanish: Iglesia de Santa Catalina) is a church located in Sevilla, Spain, constructed in the fourteenth century. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1912.


WikiWeb_Our Lady of Grace Cathedral, São Tomé_0

The Our Lady of Grace Cathedral (Portuguese: Sé Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Graça), also called Cathedral of São Tomé, is a church in the city of São Tomé, capital of the African and island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. It is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of São Tomé and Príncipe. It stands at Praça do Povo (People's Square) in the city centre, close to the Presidential Palace.
Construction of the first church of Our Lady of Grace was started at the end of the fifteenth century under Captain Álvaro de Caminha. This church was situated near the present cathedral. It became the seat of a diocese in 1534. The building was reconstructed between 1576 and 1578, during the reign of King Sebastian of Portugal. In 1784, it was in poor condition with the frontispiece broken. In 1814 it was rebuilt at the initiative of the local population. The last modification was made in 1956, when the church was remodeled in an eclectic revival style, with a neo-romanesque main façade.


Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded on December 14, 1817, by Father Vicente Francisco de Sarría, as a medical asistencia ("sub-mission") of the San Francisco Mission to treat their sick population. It was granted full mission status in 1822.
This was one of the missions turned over to the Mexican government in 1833 after the Mexican secularization act of 1833. In 1840, there were 150 Native Americans still at the Mission. By 1844, Mission San Rafael Arcángel had been abandoned; what was left of the empty buildings was sold for $8,000 in 1846. The Mission was used by John C. Fremont as his headquarters during the Bear Flag Revolt.
On June 28, 1846, three men departed the mission, including Kit Carson, and murdered three unarmed Californians under the order of John C. Fremont: Don José R. Berreyesa, father of José de los Santos Berreyesa, along with the twin sons of Don Francisco de Haro, Ramon and Francisco De Haro.
In 1847, a priest was once again living at the Mission. A new parish church was built near the old chapel ruins in 1861, and, in 1870, the rest of the ruins were removed to make room for the City of San Rafael. All that was left of the Mission was a single pear tree from the old Mission's orchard.  It is for this reason that San Rafael is known as the "most obliterated of California's missions".
In 1949, a replica of the chapel was built next to the current Saint Raphael's Church on the site of the original hospital in San Rafael, California which was built in 1919.


Mission San Rafael Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1817 as a medical asistencia ("sub-mission") of Mission San Francisco de Asís. It was a hospital to treat sick Native Americans, making it Alta California's first sanitarium. The weather was much better than in San Francisco, which helped the ill get better.  It was not intended to be a stand-alone mission, but nevertheless grew and prospered and was granted full mission status on October 19, 1822.


WikiWeb_Church of Sts. Simon and Jude (Prague)_1

In 1615–1920 the chapel was significantly enlarged to a hall construction with galleries and chapels, and windows in the Late Gothic style were added. In 1620 the new church, a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles, was erected by members of the Protestant sect Bohemian Brethren, was consecrated on July 14 of that year, and, after Battle of White Mountain, was (together with the adjoined St. Francis Hospital, Na Františku) entrusted as a Christmas gift by Emperor Ferdinand II to the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, who to this day own the complex.
About a century later Sts. Simon and Jude was remodelled in the High Baroque style, apparent to this day in its interior decorations—altars, statues, the pulpit, tromp d’oeil murals and marquetry, and in the loft was installed a pipe organ by Andreas Wambetsser of north Bohemia, which in combination with the sanctuary's acoustics would attract W. A. Mozart and J. Haydn to perform there. Among artists involved were Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff, Josef Hager and V. V. Reiner, author of the main altar piece.
The widely read author Alois Jirásek, whose works would later be coopted by the Communist Party and reissued as required textbooks, wrote about the Church of Sts. Simon and Jude and the hospital to which it is adjoined in his 5-volume historical novel F. L. Věk (1891–1906). In 1847, per Jirásek's account, a medical surgeon named Celestine Opitz performed the world's first operation under anesthesia at St. Francis, consequently enabling the hospital and church to draw support from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, Edvard Benes and Pope Pius XI. Among Opitz' colleagues at St. Francis was the surgeon/composer Jan Theobald Held, a musical figure made famous by his patriotic characterization in F. L. Věk.


WikiWeb_Church of Sts. Simon and Jude (Prague)_0

The Church of Sts. Simon and Jude (Kostel svatého Šimona a Judy), situated next to the Brutalist Hotel InterContinental on U Milosrdných Street in the Old Town of Prague, dates back to 1354, when a hospital was founded on the site. The building was adjoined by a chapel that was sanctified by bishop Arnošt of Pardubice, a close friend of Emperor Charles IV.


WikiWeb_Priory Church, South Queensferry_0

The Priory Church of St Mary of Mount Carmel, commonly called the Priory Church or St Mary's Episcopal Church, is a congregation of the Scottish Episcopal Church located in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, Scotland.
The church building was constructed in the mid 15th century for the Carmelite Order. It served as the parish church in the 16th and 17th centuries, but subsequently fell into disrepair. In 1890 it was restored and reopened by the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is now the only medieval Carmelite church still in use in the British Isles, and is a category A listed building.


WikiWeb_Priory Church, South Queensferry_1

The Carmelite Friary at Queensferry was founded in 1330. The first known record dates from 1457, and is a grant of land from James Dundas of Dundas to the Carmelite order, for the purpose of building a monastery.
Following the Scottish Reformation of 1560, the Carmelite monastery returned to the ownership of the Dundas family, and the former Carmelite church was subsequently used as the parish church. In the 17th century a new parish church was constructed (now the Old Parish Church on The Vennel), and the congregation moved out of the Carmelite church in 1635.
The building was put to a variety of uses until the late 19th century, and during this time its condition deteriorated. The monastic buildings were demolished, as was the nave in 1875. Architects Henry Seymour and John Kinross completed a restoration scheme in 1889, and the following year James Montgomery, Dean of Edinburgh, reconsecrated the building for the Scottish Episcopal Church. Further restoration and repair works were carried out in 2000.


The Church of Our Lady (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) in Bruges, Belgium, dates mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. This church is essentially "...a monument to the wealth, sophistication, taste, and devotion of this most Catholic city, whose history and faith stand today celebrated in this wonderful building."
Its tower, at 115.6 metres (379 ft) in height, remains the tallest structure in the city and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world (after St. Mary's Church in Lübeck and St. Martin's Church in Landshut, both in Germany).
The church demonstrates the Gothic style in the prominent Flying buttresses on the exterior which were constructed in the 1270s and 80s. The nave contains cross-vaults and black and white tiled flooring. The interior demonstrates the heavily ornamented Baroque style in the side aisles and chancel. One of the chapels in the church was created in 1482 for a wealthy man named Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, as his personal worship area.


WikiWeb_Santi Filippo e Giacomo, Naples_0

Santi Filippo e Giacomo is a Renaissance style, Roman Catholic church in Naples, Italy, located on Via San Biagio dei Librai, near the churches of San Biagio Maggiore and Santa Luciella.
In 1593, the church was commissioned by local merchants and tradesman in the zone. The church we see today is the product of a 1758 reconstruction by Gennaro Papa. The concave/convex facade recalls the style of Borromini; and the top level niches hold statues of Religion and Faith by Giuseppe Picano, while the lower level has statues of St Phillip and St James by Giuseppe Sanmartino. The pavement was designed by Giuseppe Massa, and the holy water fonts by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro. The frescoes in the choir, nave and walls were completed by Jacopo Cestaro. He also painted the Evangelists on the cupola and St Phillip and Jacob in the presbytery.


WikiWeb_Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan)_0

Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, it was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation’s fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914.
The church is home to the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, a choral ensemble comprising men and boys which performs music of the Anglican tradition at worship services and offers a full concert series during the course of the year. The men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers and the boys are students enrolled at the Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church-affiliated residential choir school in the United States.


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The style of worship at Saint Thomas Church has varied greatly over the history of the parish.  Beginning with the rectorship of John Andrew in 1972, however, it has followed the Anglo-Catholic or high-church tradition within the Episcopal Church that developed out of the Oxford Movement. This was further developed under the rectorship of Andrew Mead.  Sunday services include Low Mass, High Mass, and Evensong, and Solemn Mass on Christmas, Easter and major feast days.  Special liturgies and processions are held for Advent, Epiphany, Candlemas and Holy Week.  The Litany is sung in procession in Advent and Lent.  The choir of men and boys sing most Sundays in term time and, if there are no visiting choirs during the school vacation, the gentlemen of the choir sing the services.  The church uses traditional language on Sundays and for most of its weekday services and the King James Version of the Bible is used on Sundays and at Evensong during the week.  Rite II of the BCP1979 is used for the 12:10 pm mass Mondays to Fridays.  In Lent 2015 Shrine Prayers were started at the image of Our Lady of Fifth Avenue and intercessions are offered at noon after the Angelus Mondays to Saturdays; these intercessions may be left in the church or submitted online via the church website. Confessions are heard each Saturday from 11:00-11:45 am.  The church is open every day of the year.


WikiWeb_Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan)_2

On October 12, 1823, members of three Episcopal parishes in Lower Manhattan collaborated to organize a new episcopal church in New York. These included William Backhouse Astor, a wealthy Manhattan landowner; Charles King, later president of Columbia University; and jurist William Beach Lawrence. The congregation came from Grace Church, Trinity Church, and St. George's Church.
Saint Thomas Church was incorporated on January 9, 1824. With the cornerstone laid in July 1824 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Houston Street, the first church edifice opened in 1826 and was described as "the best specimen of Gothic in the city." The location was the northern extent of developed settlement in Manhattan during the early 19th century. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style by architect Joseph R. Brady and John McVickar, professor of moral philosophy at Columbia College (now Columbia University). The church was enlarged and remodeled in 1844 to accommodate a growing congregation.
The first Saint Thomas's Church was destroyed by fire on March 2, 1851. The congregation built a new church at the same location, completed in 1852. The character of the neighborhood at the corner of Broadway and Houston, the southeastern corner of Greenwich Village, broadly speaking, had "degenerated into anchorage for cheap dance halls and 'concert salloons'" by the 1860s. This led to the congregation seeking to relocate.


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The first stained glass window placed in the fourth Saint Thomas Church structure was designed by Nicola D'Ascenzo, an Italian-born American stained glass artist. The window was designed in 1926 and completed and installed in 1927.  The last window, designed and installed in 1974, came from the Willet Stained Glass Studios, headed by E. Crosby Willet and founded by William Willet. Both those studios were located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time of the fabrication of their windows for Saint Thomas Church.
James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars), Ltd, of London, secured a contract for the remaining windows in the present church structure, including all except one of the clerestory windows. Each window measures 32 feet (9.8 m) tall and 18 feet (5.5 m) wide and depict biblical figures interacting with notable American bishops. The windows for the present structure were designed beginning in 1929 by English stained glass artist James Humphries Hogan, who also the main American sales agent for the firm. He labored from 1926 to 1928 to acquire the commission for the Saint Thomas Church windows.  Hogan's son, Edmond Humphries Hogan, designed some of the windows, including those in the Rector's office.  The actual fabrication and installation of the Powell & Sons windows was not completed until 1970, but most of the windows were designed by Hogan before his death in 1948.  Five windows were designed and completed after his death:  one in 1950, one in 1954, two in 1959, and one in 1970.  Those windows were the work of another Powell & Sons artist, Edward Liddall Armitage.
In 2007, conservation began in earnest on all the stained glass windows in the present structure. It took ten years and $20 million to renew the splendor of 33 windows, with their 9 million pieces of glass.  The restoration was completed in February 2017.


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Musical offerings at Saint Thomas Church are enhanced through three organs. The Arents Memorial Chancel Organ, which has been replaced with the Irene D. and William R. Miller Chancel Organ in Memory of John Scott, was initially built as the "Opus 205" of the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1913. This organ, which was revised in 1945, boasted 4 manuals and 77 ranks. In 1956, the organ was rebuilt, as "Opus 205-A", by the Aeolian-Skinner Company by G. Donald Harrison (died 1956), who died before the work was completed. This rebuilding expanded the organ to comprise 172 ranks. With damage to the reredos and the organ due to construction of the Museum of Modern Art, the church's immediate neighbor on West 53rd Street, Gilbert F. Adams of Brooklyn was contracted in 1969 to repair and rebuilt the organ. This revision decreased the number of ranks to 156. Further revisions were completed in the early 1980s by Mann & Trupiano. With the exception of the Trompette-en-Chamade, located under the Rose Window above the narthex, the entire instrument of the Great Organ was located in the church's chancel. The now-dismantled Great Organ featured an Electro-pneumatic and electric-slider stop and chest action, a Solid-State combination action, 4 manuals, 158 ranks and 9,050 pipes.
The Loening-Hancock Gallery Organ was built as "Opus 27" of Taylor & Boody Organbuilders of Staunton, Virginia, in 1996 to honor Gerre Hancock for 25 years of service to Saint Thomas Church. Located in the gallery beneath the church's Rose Window, this organ features a mechanical key and stop action, 2 manuals, 25 stops, and 32 ranks. Its case sports
fumed white oak with pipe shades gilded in 23 carat gold.  Its predecessor, the Loening Memorial Organ, dedicated in memory of Hermine Rubino Leoning, was built by Gilbert F. Adams in 1969 and featured 4 manuals, 59 stops, and 90 ranks.
The Martha J. Dodge Positiv Organ was built and installed in December 2001 by Taylor & Boody Organbuilders. This organ consists of 5 ranks, and is used as a continuo organ.


WikiWeb_Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church (Greenville, Alabama)_0

Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church built in 1913, and located in Greenville, Alabama. It was one of three significant meeting places for African-Americans living in Greenville during the early-20th century.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.


Luss Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in Luss, Argyll and Bute, dedicated to Saint Kessog.
The present church building was constructed in 1875 and subject to major restoration works in 2001. The church site has had 1,500 years of continuous Christian presence, being founded by Saint Kessog, and has 15 listed ancient monuments in its graveyard.
The church has in recent times embraced the internet, broadcasting its services online and inviting, in exception to usual Church practice, outsiders to take advantage of the picturesque location on the banks of Loch Lomond for weddings, of which 153 were held in 2009. Notable weddings to have been held at the church include that of Kirsty Hume to Donovan Leitch,  Noel Edmonds to Helen Soby and Sarah Heaney to Ed Adams.
The church is a significant site for religious tourism, with over 2,000 people visiting the church on busy summer days, contributing £5 million per annum to the local economy. It is estimated to receive 750,000 visitors a year, in a parish with a population of only 400.
The church celebrated 1,500 years of worship in 2010 by opening a new visitors centre for Luss after the National Parks Authority sold its building to Purdies, a Scottish natural soap producer.


Saint John's Church, Männistö (Finnish: Männistön Pyhän Johanneksen kirkko), is a Lutheran church in the Männistö neighborhood in the city of  Kuopio. The church was designed by architect Juha Leiviskä together with Pekka Kivisalo, and completed in 1992. The interior of the church features an altarpiece by artist Markku Pääkkönen.


The original church is believed to have been built of wood during the reign Harald Gille who was king of Norway from 1130 until his death in 1136.  The current church was built of gray-washed natural stone between 1270 to 1319 and was probably a church for a Franciscan order. Major extensions and extensions were carried out in 1690, 1804 and 1807-1809. It was rebuilt in 1806 and renovated in 1912.
The pulpit  is from 1691 and was built in baroque design. Rebuilding in 1852 has changed the pulpit into a more neoclassical style. An octagonal baptismal font with neoclassical design is made in 1912 after drawings by architect Ture Gabriel Schaar  (1864-1945).


The Marstrand Church (Swedish: Marstrands kyrka) is a church building in Marstrand, Sweden. It
belongs to the  Marstrand Parish  of the Diocese of Gothenburg of the Church of Sweden.


WikiWeb_Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen_2

The Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen was built in the tradition of Bahian churches of the 18th century, with a single nave and lateral corridors surmounted by tribunes. It lacks the transverse sacristy of other churches of the period. The exterior is of stone masonry and brick and opens directly onto the Terreiro de Jesus. A small church yard is of stone and is enclosed by an iron fence. A planned right-hand bell tower was never constructed. The interior of the church has a nave, lateral corridors, chancel, sacristy, choir, ossuary, meeting room, and miscellaneous smaller rooms. The decor of the interior of the church represents the transition between the both Rococo and Neoclassical styles in Bahia.


WikiWeb_Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen_0

The Church of Saint Peter of the Clergymen (Portuguese: Igreja de São Pedro dos Clérigos) is an 18th-century Roman Catholic church in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It was constructed by the Brotherhood of Saint Peter in approximately 1709 and was renovated in the 18th and 19th centuries. The church was listed as a historic structure by National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) in 1938 and is part of the Historic Center of Salvador UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Seven St Gertrude's churches have stood on or near the current location. The first (age unknown, but in existence by 1418) was built of stone, but later demolished. From 1589 to 1591 it was rebuilt. It was again destroyed in 1605 by the Swedish army laying siege to Riga in that year. The rebuilt church was not damaged in the Russian siege of Riga (1656), although its bells and organ were stolen and taken to Russia. In 1700 the church was again destroyed, as part of the fighting of the Great Northern War. From 1743 to 1744 the church was rebuilt, in wood. From 1753 to 1754 the church was again rebuilt, in order to enlarge it, and it was again furnished with bells and an organ. Further expansion led to a rebuilding from 1778 to 1779, and a shift of location back to the exact site of the original stone church. Application was made to build in stone, but was refused by the city council (stone structures were permitted only inside the city walls), so another wooden church was built. This building was destroyed in the French invasion of 1812. The church was rebuilt from 1814 to 1817. Finally from 1866 to 1869 the present stone and brick church was constructed to replace the wooden building.


St. Gertrude Old Church (Latvian: Vecā Svētās Ģertrūdes Evaņģēliski luteriskā baznīca) is a Lutheran church in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It is a parish church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. The church is situated at the address 6 Ģertrūdes Street. It has a long association with Riga's German ethnic community, and the congregation worship in the German language.


WikiWeb_Descent of the Holy Spirit Church_0

Wooden Descent of the Holy Spirit Church was built in suburb of Potelych, Ukraine in 1502 on the place of a church that was burned down by tatars. It is the oldest wooden church in Lviv Oblast. Church was visited by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
The structure consists of three wooden naves and a brick sacristy.
On June 21, 2013, on the 37th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cambodia the Holy Trinity Church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List among 16 wooden tserkvas of Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine.


The place located on a military road between Kuldiga (German: Goldingen) and Liepaja (German: Libau), was first mentioned as German: Asenputten in papers documenting  division of Kurland in 1253 and was at that time probably the site of a Curonian Wallburg. Hasenpoth, former Hanseatic city was the seat of the Order and the seat of the Kurland cathedral chapter.
The construction of the Ordensburg, located on the left bank of the Tebra River, begun in 1249 under Order Master  Dietrich von Grüningen and served to secure the southern part of the army road from Riga to Goldingen. It was built as a regular Order Castle with a forepart, a corner tower and wooden buildings in the yard.  For 1341 Hasenpoth is called as belonging to the Commandery Goldingen and is in 1397 and 1430 explicitly referred to as the castle of the Order. Castle Hasenpoth gained importance as a border castle between religious and episcopal areas, the bishop maintained a castle here, so that these castles were referred to as Bishop Hasenpoth and Order Hasenpoth. In 15th century outside of the castle's walls was built new eastern block. The Order used it until Order collapse after Treaty of Vilnius (1561).
During the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the castle was restored and from that time the entrance gate retains plaster with rich and decorative decoration in sgraffito technique. During Second Northern War (1655–1660), the castle was devastated by the Swedish troops. In 1665 Jacob Kettler rebuilt castle  and  it garrison was reinforced with cannon team. In 1682 the castle became the property of von Michael Friedrich Nold.
At this time castle lost it character of fortification and was rebuilt as a residential building still protected by castle walls. Gradually it importance as a residential building was also lost and it remained only partially occupied.
In the second half of 18th century a new manor house was built near the castle mill pond on the other side. A mill, an alcohol brewery and a farmhouse were also built near the pond.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the eastern part of the castle and the southeastern tower were built with smooth brick arches and new partitions. The old part of the castle was only partially inhabited, and the owners lived in the new manor house. From 1863 until the Latvia's agrarian reform of 1920s Aizpute manor house belonged to the Grothuss noble family.
In 1939 the castle was adapted to the needs of the school. It was used until the mid-1970s, after which it was abandoned.
In 1990 restoration work was started and surveys were conducted repeatedly. In 1997, a project for wall anchoring and roof construction was completed, partially implemented in the D-section. In 1999, the castle wall was conserved for a small section of the castle on the right wing, and a tile roof was placed.


Aizpute Castle (German: Ordensburg Hasenpoth) is a Livonian Order castle in the town of Aizpute in the historical region of Courland, in western Latvia. It was heavily damaged during the Second Northern War (1655–1660). Since 1998, the castle ruins are a Latvian historical monument.


The first records of the castle date from the late 12th century and it is thought that is when the castle was first constructed. Far less grand than it is today, the original castle consisted only of basic walls and two towers. Over subsequent centuries, the castle had a number of owners including members of the House of Savoy. A family of local nobility (House of Roncas, or Maison de Roncas in French) purchased the castle in the 17th century and it was that family that expanded the castle into a large fortified residence.


Saint-Pierre Castle (Italian: Castello di Saint-Pierre, French: Château de Saint-Pierre) is a late 12th century castle located at Saint-Pierre in the Aosta Valley, Italy.


The castle in Jaunpils is first time mentioned in 1411. Most likely it's built in the end of the 14th century. The tower was added in the 15th century.
In the first half of 16th century Jaunpils Castle was the place where many old and weak brothers of Livonian Order settled.
In 1576 Jaunpils Castle became property of last komtur of Dobele Matthias von der Recke. Castle was owned by his descendants until 1920.
The castle was heavily damaged in war by Swedes in 1625. Later a third floor was added and the old fortress became a manor with all conveniences in the end of the 17th century. The building was partly reconstructed in the 18th century. The castle was burned down during the Russian Revolution of 1905. A year later it was rebuilt by architect Wilhelm Bockslaff.
From the 16th century until 1920 the castle belonged to the family of the Baltic German baron von der Recke. One of the family members who lived there in the 18th century was the poet Elisa von der Recke. After the Latvian agrarian reforms of the 1920s, the castle complex housed a cattle-breeding experimental station. During the Soviet occupation of Latvia, the interior of the castle was heavily reconstructed and for many years had typical Soviet interiors from the 1960s. In the 2000s, a team of Latvian designers refitted the interior of the castle. Today it features luxurious medieval style apartments which blend luxuries with glimpses of the castle's history.


Jaunpils Castle (German: Schloß Neuenburg) is a castle in Jaunpils Parish, Tukums Municipality in the Semigallia region of Latvia. More of a manor house than properly a fortified castle, it has now been converted into a hotel.


The castle as it is today was built by Matthew Bonnellus in the 12th century. It was later modified by the Chiaramontes in the 14th century, and by other rulers until the 17th century.
The castle is a large structure built of white stone, having an irregular plan. It has walls with V-shaped battlements, towers, a moat and a courtyard. The interior consists of a maze of rooms and stairways.
The most notable room within the castle is the Sala della Congiura, also known as the Conspiracy Hall. In 1160, some Norman barons met in this room to plot against William I of Sicily, but the rebellion failed.
Parts of the castle collapsed in an earthquake in 1923.
The castle was inhabited by descendants of the Dukes of Caccamo until it was purchased by the Region of Sicily in October 1963. By this time, the castle was in ruins. Restoration work funded by the Region of Sicily began in 1974.


The Castello di Caccamo (English: Caccamo Castle) is a castle in Caccamo, Sicily. It is among the largest and best preserved Norman castles in Sicily, and one of the largest in Italy.
The castle is built on a steep cliff, 521 metres above sea level. It overlooks the surrounding countryside, including the San Leonardo River Valley, and the Rosmarina artificial lake.


Today, the castle is open to the public. A restaurant called A Castellana is located on the ground level of the castle, while other parts of the structure are also used for conferences and meetings.


Nagahama Castle was built in 1575-1576 by Hashiba Hideyoshi (later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi) in the village then called Imahama, renaming the area Nagahama. Previously, he had ruled from Odani Castle, though found this hard to do as it was a yamashiro (mountaintop castle). Hideyoshi was succeeded as lord by Yamanouchi Kazutoyo after the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake. Kazutoyo was then replaced by Naito Nobunari after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. In 1615, the castle was demolished, though parts of it were used in the construction of Hikone Castle.


Nagahama Castle (長浜城, Nagahama-jō) is a hirashiro (castle on a plain) located in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.


Nagahama Castle is now a park. Most of the castle lies in ruins, but the tenshu (keep) was reconstructed out of concrete in 1983. It contains a museum about the city of Nagahama.


Newark Castle is a ruin located just west of St Monans, on the east coast of Fife, Scotland. The building, built in 15th century, stands in a dramatic location, overlooking the North Sea. The upper storeys are ruinous, but vaulted cellars survive, hidden from view.


Building on the site probably dates back to the 13th century, at which time the Scottish king Alexander III (1241–1286) spent some of his childhood there.
The current building was begun in the 15th century by the Kinloch family. It then passed, through marriage, to the Sandilands of Cruivie, who sold it in 1649 David Leslie. Leslie was a prominent figure in the English and Scottish Civil Wars, becoming Lord Newark after the wars. Following Leslie's death in 1682, the castle passed to the Anstruther family, and finally to the Bairds of Elie.
The castle attracted the attention of Sir William Burrell, the Glasgow shipping magnate and collector of art and antiques, in the late 19th century when Sir Robert Lorimer produced a plan for its restoration. The scheme never went ahead as the owner of the site, a Mr Baird of Elie, refused to sell.
The castle has been known by several names, including Inverie, St Monans and St Monance (the latter being a mediaeval form of the possessive St Monan's). It has been designated by Historic Environment Scotland, together with its associated dovecote, as a scheduled monument.


The rest of the 20th century saw a large amount of restoration and maintenance take place, as well as the castle being opened to visitors.


While there is evidence of prehistoric or Pictish earthworks in the grounds of the castle, the remains most visible today are of the castle constructed in the mid-15th century. This building is sometimes said to be the work of Robert Cochrane, a favourite of James III. It passed to the Clan Ogilvy in 1489 and from them to the Clan Gordon in 1535.
There are accounts, including by William Forbes Skene and Alexander Macbain, that state that William Mackintosh, 15th of Mackintosh had burned the Earl of Huntly's Auchindoun Castle which is why Huntly had him executed in 1550. However, Alexander Mackintosh-Shaw states that this story is entirely fictitious. The castle was damaged by the Clan Mackintosh in 1592 in retaliation for Huntly's killing of the Bonny Earl O'Moray, their ally. In March 1593 Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun was forfeited as a rebel, and Auchindoun Castle was given to Sir George Home, whose wife Elizabeth Gordon was Patrick Gordon's stepdaughter.
After the battle of Glenlivet in October 1594, the wounded followers of the Earl of Huntly came to Auchindoun for safety. James VI ordered that Auchindoun, Slains Castle, Huntly Castle, and the Gordon castles of Abergeldy and Newton should be slighted or demolished.
Following the Restoration of Charles II, the castle was again awarded to the Marquis of Huntly.

In 1689, during the first Jacobite rising, the castle was used as a temporary headquarters (on 6–7 June 1689) by John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee and his Jacobite army. However, the castle was derelict by 1725. Stones taken from the castle were used in local farm buildings and nearby Balvenie Castle.


Auchindoun Castle is a 15th-century L-Plan tower castle located in Auchindoun near Dufftown in Banffshire, Scotland.


While standing, the castle had a large central tower and high curtain wall.  Supporting buildings including a stable, brewery and bakery stood inside the wall.  A second round tower guarded the north-west corner of the compound. Cellars and possibly dungeons were dug directly into the bedrock beneath the tower.  Today much of the curtain wall and some of the outbuildings remain, but the central tower itself is very dilapidated.
An extension is known to have been added in the 16th century by the Gordons before the Ogilvys reclaimed it in 1594. Stones taken from the castle have been used in local farm buildings and nearby Balvenie Castle.
The ruins of the castle are in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument, but were for many years in too dangerous a condition to be open to the public.  On the completion of consolidation works, Auchindoun was reopened for public viewing in November 2007.


Construction on the castle is thought to have begun at the end of the 12th century, when it was built as a sort of castellum. It is thought Birger Jarl expanded the building to a larger castle. During the reign of Albert of Sweden the castle was held as a fief by the German knight Raven van Barnekow, who made important improvements on the building, and later by Bo Jonsson Grip. Further reconstructions and expansions were done during the late Middle Ages. Gustav Vasa strengthened the castle further for defensive purposes and a round gun tower from that time remains today.
The medieval castle was rebuilt in the end of the 16th century by Duke Charles (later Charles IX of Sweden) into a renaissance palace. The palace burned down with the rest of the city in 1665. It wasn't reerected; in fact some of its bricks were used in the construction of Stockholm Palace. However, parts of the castle were sound enough to be used as county residence until the 1760s.
Parts of the castle were refurbished in the 20th century. Kungstornet (the King's Tower) and Gamla residenset (the Old Residence) currently house the permanent exhibits of Sörmlands museum (the Museum of Södermanland). A restaurant is located in the banquet hall and Drottningkällaren (the Queen's Cellar).


The Château de La Brède is a feudal castle in the commune of La Brède in the département of Gironde, France.
The castle was built in the Gothic style starting in 1306, on the site of an earlier castle. It is surrounded by water-filled moats and an English garden, in the centre of a Bordelais vineyard. Despite modifications over the centuries, it has kept its character as a fortress.
The philosopher Montesquieu (full title: Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu) was born, lived and wrote the majority of his works here. Visitors may see his library (though the books have been transferred to the library in Bordeaux) and his bedroom, both preserved as they were in the 18th century.
At her death in 2004, the Countess of Chabannes, a descendant of Montesquieu and last owner of the château, bequeathed her belongings, including the castle, to the Foundation named after her.
The castle is open to visitors from Easter to 11 November. It is classed by the French Ministry of Culture as a monument historique.


The Château de Comper is a former castle located in Paimpont forest (formerly known as Brocéliande), three kilometers to the east of the village of Concoret in the department of Morbihan in the region of Brittany, France. It has been rebuilt as a château. The name Comper, like Quimper,  probably comes from the Breton word kemper, which means confluence. It is surrounded by several streams and lakes.


The castle was originally square, with towers at each of the four corners, linked by strong curtain walls. At the main door was a drawbridge.
The first owner of Comper is sometimes said to have been Salomon, King of Brittany in the 9th century. The castle is first recorded history associated with the Baron Raoul de Gaël-Monfort (Ralph de Gael), who was a companion of William of Normandy during the 11th century Norman conquest of England.
During the 13th century, Comper was considered one of the strongest castles in Brittany. For this reason, it has been the object of many battles and sieges. It has also changed owner several times in its history:
In 1370, it was devastated by Bertrand du Guesclin.
In the beginning of the 15th century, it became the vassal of the Dukes of Laval. In 1467, the Duke Guy XIV de Laval drew up the charte des usements et coutumes de Brécilien (charter of the uses and customs of Brocéliande), which was used to divide the forest into parcels and to define the rights and duties of everyone regarding each parcel.
During the 16th century, Comper went to the Rieux family, then to the Coligny family.
A famous episode in the history of Comper took place during the Wars of Religion, between the Catholic League and partisans of the king Henri IV. At the end of 1595, after a long resistance, the Duc de Mercœur's men failed to keep the castle. In reprisal, Henri IV  dismantled the castle three years later.
After this, Comper went to the la Trémoille family.
During the Revolution, the revolutionary party burned half of the main building, on 28 January 1790. It was rebuilt during the 19th century by Armand de Charette, whose initials were left on numerous mantelpieces.
Today, the castle is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. Now the moat is dry, and the 19th-century mansion houses the exhibitions of the Centre de l'Imaginaire Arthurien about the Arthurian legend.


Balintore Castle is a Victorian Category A listed building in Scotland.
The castle occupies an elevated site in moorland above Balintore village, a few miles north of the Loch of Lintrathen, near Kirriemuir, Angus. A tower house named Balintor existed on the site in the late 16th century, according to Timothy Pont's maps.
It was designed in 1859 by the architect William Burn. A typical example of the Scottish Baronial style, it features an abundance of turreted towers and gables, and a gone oriel window. The main tower is topped by a balustraded viewing platform similar to that of Buchanan Castle.
The centrepiece of the interior is the great hall, and there is also a gallery, bedrooms, dinner service room, women servant's sitting room, brushing room, beer cellar, lumber room, butler's pantry, dining room, and a library.
Balintore Castle was commissioned as a sporting lodge by David Lyon, MP, who had inherited a fortune made by his family through investments in the East India Company. Latterly the castle was used only during the shooting season.
In the 1960s it was decided not to repair the extensive dry rot, and it was abandoned. The castle then stood empty until 2007, during which time its condition deteriorated to point of endangering the structure. Balintore Castle has been listed in the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland since it started in 1990. Angus Council used its compulsory purchase powers to buy it from its absentee Far Eastern owners, and it is now in the hands of a Scotsman who is restoring it and residing there.


Evidence exists of an ancient monastery attached to a basilica of the same name, possibly founded in the 7th century. In 1080, Cardinal Richard of St. Victor, a monk of the ancient Abbey of St. Victor in Marseille, was sent as the legate of Pope Gregory VII to the Council of Burgos held that year. One of his mandates was to ensure the adoption of the Roman Rite, replacing the ancient Mozarabic Rite used by the Christians of Iberia for centuries. He carried specific instructions for the restoration of San Servando and its adoption of Roman liturgical practice.
After surviving for several centuries under Muslim rule, when the city was conquered by the Christian army of King Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085, both he and his wife, Constance of Burgundy, became generous benefactors of the basilica and rebuilt the monastery.  According to John Ormsby, the English translator of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes,  Alfonso VI called the castle "San Servando" after a Spanish martyr, a name subsequently modified into San Servan (in which form it appears in the "Poem of the Cid"), San Servantes, and San Cervantes.  Mr. Ormsby mentions that "there is a complete history of the Cervantes family from the tenth century down to the seventeenth extant under the title "Illustrious Ancestry, Glorious Deeds, and Noble Posterity of the Famous Nuino Alfonso, Alcaide of Toledo," written in 1648 Rodrigo Mendez Silva." On the side of the mountain, near the Castle, a poem by Miguel de Cervantes was enshrined in 2005, four hundred years after Miguel de Cervantes wrote it.  A picture of the poem is at panoramio.com.
On 11 March 1088, the king offered the monastery to the Holy See on the condition that it be permanently administered by the Abbey of St. Victor, along with all its goods and benefits. This arrangement was approved by Pope Urban II, who was elected the day after the documents for the donation were drawn up, on 20 February 1089. He entrusted the task to Cardinal Richard, by then himself Abbot of St. Victor. After that point, the monastery came under the authority of the Abbey of St. Victor and French monks began to occupy the Spanish monastery, introducing the Rule of St. Benedict.
King Alfonso saw the monastery as a bulwark of Christian presence in the region, and on 13 February 1099, made a donation of the Church of Santa María de Alficén, and of the community surrounding it, which was a traditional Mozarabic territory. He gave the monastery the objective of maintaining this identity among the populace. He further founded a monastery of Benedictine nuns to be attached to the church. Both monastic communities were charged with providing care and hospitality to the poor of the region and to travelers.
The monastery was destroyed by Saracen attacks in 1110, and the monks returned to Marseille. It was at this point that the Monastery of San Servando entered a new phase of its existence, as it became the possession of the Archbishop of Toledo and the cathedral chapter.


The original house was built in 1719 for The 2nd Earl of Bute, but was rebuilt for The 3rd Marquess of Bute following a fire on 3 December 1877. After his earlier creations of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch in Cardiff, the Marquess used many of the builders and workman he had employed in South Wales, including William Burges and much of that architect's team.  Burges built an oratory at the house.  The main part of the present house is a flamboyant example of 19th-century Gothic Revival architecture, built in a reddish-brown stone. Mount Stuart's major features include the colonnaded Marble Hall at the centre of the main block and the Marble Chapel, which has an elaborate spired tower which is the tallest part of the building. Two earlier wings in a strikingly different style survive. They are much smaller in scale, have Georgian-style sash windows and are painted white.
Much of the furniture was custom-designed for the house by Robert Weir Schultz in the early years of the 20th century. He also laid out many sections of the gardens.
The Mount Stuart House claims to have the world's first heated pool in any house; it was also the first home in Scotland to be lit by electricity.
The house holds The Bute Collection, a private collection of artwork and artefacts The Collection also houses archives, books, furniture, and silverwork reflecting the interests of the Bute family's various generations, including 25,000 books on topics including theology, botany, agriculture and Scottish history and literature. In April 2016 it was announced that a Shakespeare First Folio had been discovered in the House's Library. The folio belonged to Isaac Reed.
The house is open to the public.


Mount Stuart House, on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, is a country house built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute. It was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess in the late 1870s, replacing an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which burnt down in 1877.  The house is a Category A listed building.


One of the most important defenses in the medieval banate/duchy of Usora, this large stone structure was built in the early 13th century on the site of an earlier, clay and wood-based structure from the 10th or 11th century. In the first period of its existence, from early 13th to about early 15th century (1415), the fortress was built in the Romanesque architecture style.
Doboj fortress underwent a major reconstruction in the spring of 1415. While still retaining some of its original Romanesque elements, the fortress now displayed Gothic structure and had its large keep reinforced with thick walls - up to 3 feet or about 1 meter thick at the Eastern wall. Northern tower received an addition of a bastion/plateau with six cannon. The captain's tower was turned into even more dominating feature, a 5-stories tall donjon. Its perfectly square base and considerable height were not typical for Usora castles of the time. Moreover, additional outer walls were built around the original triangular core and three big towers (Northern, Eastern, and Southern Gate) have been strengthened as well. These towers strategically protected flanks of the fortress, hence rendering any idea of an attack a suicidal attempt. The Southern tower's walls, in particular, were changed into round shape in order to deflect cannonballs (circa 1370-1380s) and local captains at the time used Dubrovnik-made cannons, bombards, and balistas as the fortress' main defense weaponry. Since early 14th century, there was a small contingent permanently stationed at the fortress and it was armed with swords, lances, halberds, bows, crossbows, and later on, handguns. Much of the weaponry was locally made but finer equipment was imported from Germany, Venice, and Dubrovnik. The latter was known as Republic of Ragusa at the time and its merchants travelled and traded regularly throughout medieval Usora and Bosnia. Ragusan engineers also built the water cistern in the upper fort of Doboj.
The fortress served as the focal point guarding the entry into Bosnia proper as it overlooks Doboj valley where Posavina flatlands gradually turn into hills and mountains of central Bosnia. Its strategic position controlled the roads leading north towards Croatia, east along Spreca river towards Region Soli and Drina valley towards Serbia, and south along Usora river and towards Bosnian mainland. The fortress frequently changed hands in the wars between Bosnia and Hungary from 13th through early 15th century. The town population lived in houses along several main streets huddled around the central paved square built in Mediterranean fashion and the size of this old settlement has not grown significantly between early 13th to mid 19th century. At the first signal of impending attack, the town population would leave Doboj settlement and seek safety in the fortress. The entire Usora region was rich in natural resources and due to its accessible location, constantly under the threat from northern Hungarian neighbor. Particularly notable battles in Usora, including Doboj, occurred in 1363, 1394, 1398, 1405, 1406, 1407, 1408, 1412, and 1415.


Doboj Fortress  (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: Dobojska tvrđava / Добојска тврђава) or Gradina (Градина) is located in the city of Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout its turbulent history, the fortress has been burned and ransacked at least 18 times as per official records. Of note is that Doboj fortress was considered to be a royal Kotromanić property, unlike Great Bosnian Duke Hrvoje's Zvečaj fortress or Sandalj Hranić's Blagaj fortress, which were centers of their respective duchies.


Turks had conquered the city of Doboj and its fortress in 1476 and in following decades had the fortress completely reconstructed and gave it a new shape by adding the second outer wall and additional structures. Particularly large works were done in the early summer of 1490 where some 1,500 men were employed under master-builder Ibrahim. The reconstruction work took 50 days. This was necessary from a strategic point of view, as the northernmost borders of Ottoman Empire at that time were positioned in line Jajce-Doboj-Srebrenik. It appears that the fortress was briefly retaken by Hungarian and Bosnian forces loyal to short lived Hungarian-backed Jajce Banate (1463-1528). However, as officially recorded, from 1503 the old town Doboj and its nearby fortress are firmly in Ottomans' hands until 1878. In the Austrian/Turkish war (1697) Doboj fortress had been sacked and burnt by Prince Eugene of Savoy and his Austrian armies on the march to Sarajevo. The fortress had been conquered and burnt by Austrians again in the summer of 1717. In 1740, Turks added a torture chamber to the fortress's interior but its garrison at the time consisted of only 40+ standing soldiers. Doboj fortress gradually lost its military significance in the late 18th century as the Turkish borders shifted dramatically in the Austrian/Turkish Wars, and later Napoleonic wars on Balkans and elsewhere.


In 1878, Austro-Hungarian army captured the fortress after a very heavy and prolonged battle with a local population, mostly Bosnian muslims (Bosniaks today). A-H army had losses of nearly 1,000 soldiers killed in the battle around Doboj in the late summer of 1878, on its way to Sarajevo, and as it tried to establish hold in Northern Bosnia.
While strategically obsolete, of note is that fortress remained in use by A-H forces in WWI and it stationed a strong Croatian Ustasha and German Wehrmacht unit in WWII. This unit remained firmly entrenched on the fortress throughout the entire war. Members of German forces built additional impromptu bunkers surrounded by concertina wire in the early summer of 1941, and due to its location and firepower, Serbian villagers were unable to take this object during their uprising on August 23, 1941 while they successfully captured all other objects and installations throughout the city and completely destroyed remaining barricaded German/Ustasha units in Doboj and surrounding area. Several thousands Serb rebels, already under heavy Croatian Ustasha oppression since April 10 and establishment of Independent State of Croatia, managed to hold onto the city for 48 hours before being forced back across river Bosna as German armored units entered Doboj from Derventa/Brod and Tuzla area. In retreating through the streets of Doboj, they were under constant heavy fire from the fortress and had multiple casualties.
On the evening of September 9th 1944, in coordinated action, 14th Central-Bosnian Partisan Brigade and 21st Slavonian Partisan Brigade attacked Doboj and took most of the city by the following morning. However, they were once again unable to take Doboj fortress as strong Wehrmacht units and SS-Prinz Eugen anti-armored battalion (SS-Sturmgeschutz Battalion 7) defended it ferociously. The very last shots were fired from the fortress in early morning hours of April 17, 1945, as the elements of Yugoslav Partisan 53rd Division and 14th Central-Bosnian Partisan Brigade stormed into the city from Southern and Eastern lines of defense.


Dunollie Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Dhùn Ollaigh) is a small ruined castle located on a hill north of the town of Oban, on the west coast of Scotland in Argyll.  The site enjoys views over towards the island of Kerrera and a view of the town, harbour, and outlying isles.  The castle is open to the public as part of the Dunollie Museum, Castle and Grounds.


There was a fortification on this high promontory in the Early Middle Ages, when Dunollie was the royal centre of the Cenél Loairn within the kingdom of Dál Riata. The Irish annals record that "Dun Ollaigh" was attacked or burned down three times, in 686, 698, and in 701. It was subsequently rebuilt in 714 by Selbach mac Ferchair (died 730), the King of Dál Riata credited with destroying the site in 701. Excavations in the 1970s suggest that this early fortification was abandoned some time in the 10th century.
The area around Dunollie subsequently became part of the semi-independent Kingdom of the Isles, ruled over by Somerled in the 12th century. On his death the MacDougalls became Lords of Lorne. Dougall, Somerled's son, held most of Argyll and also the islands of Mull, Lismore, Jura, Tiree, Coll and many others in the 12th century.
Excavations show that Dunollie was refortified with an earthwork castle in the 13th century or potentially the late 12th century. The builder may have been Dougall, or his son Duncan. Ewan MacDougall, great-grandson of Somerled and the third chief of the MacDougalls, switched the clan's allegiance in the mid 13th century: initially allied with Haakon IV of Norway, from the 1250s Ewan remained loyal to the kings of Scotland.
In the 14th century Ewan's grandson John MacDougall, along with his kinsmen the Comyns, sided with the Balliols against the interests of Robert the Bruce. John MacDougall's army defeated the Bruce at the Battle of Dalrigh in 1306, but Bruce returned in 1308 and crushed the MacDougalls at the Battle of the Pass of Brander. The MacDougall lands of Lorne were subsequently forfeit and were given to the Campbells, though Dunollie and other estates were regained later in the 14th century.
The existing castle ruins date largely from the 15th century.
The Marquis of Argyll captured the castle in 1644, but it was returned to the MacDougalls in 1661. In 1746, the MacDougalls abandoned Dunollie Castle and built Dunollie House just downhill from the castle ruins.
In recent years, a charitable trust was formed titled The MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust, who are responsible for the care of the historic buildings and collections held in this an ancestral site. Today, the Dunollie Preservation Trust operates Dunollie Museum, Castle & Grounds - a visitor attractions and social enterprise. Through the running of this organisation, all funds raised contribute to ongoing conservation and development efforts as well as education and learning.  Remains of a historical herb garden have recently been discovered in the castle grounds.


Sarriod de la Tour Castle is a castle in the town of Saint-Pierre by the Dora Baltea River, in Northwestern Italy's Aosta Valley. The original castle was typical of the style built between the 10th and 12th centuries, and was greatly expanded by Jean Sarriod in 1420 and his son, Antoine, in 1478. The north wing's ground floor features a wooden-ceilinged "Hall of Heads", named for its decorative motifs.


The Sarriod de la Tour Castle was the family residence of the Sarriod family since its founding. The Sarriods were politically linked to the powerful Bard family in the County of Savoy. The oldest part of the castle included a chapel and square tower, or donjon, surrounded by the castle walls, typical of the Aosta Valley 10th- to 12th-century castles. In 1420 Jean Sarriod expanded upon the "turris Sariodorum", as the donjon was known. The "Hall of Heads", built in 1430, features 171 corbels of grotesques of mythological monsters and animals bearing coats of arms. In 1478 Jean's son, Antoine Sarriod de la Tour, refurbished the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, by having painted the external frescoes of the Crucifix and Saint Christopher and caused to be built the small bell tower. The castle wall's circular and semi-circular towers were added sometime in the late 15th century, when a new entrance was created on the eastern side. In the 16th century a west-facing wing was added, then, in the 17th century, a north tower. The Sarriod family inhabited the castle until 1923. In that year the castle went to the Genoese Bensa family. Since 1970, it has been property of the autonomous Region Aosta Valley.


There are about 150 medieval castles, towers and fortified houses in the Aosta Valley.  The castle is visible from the National Road No. 26 which runs from Ivrea to the Little St Bernard Pass. Sarriod de la Tour is open to visitors year round.


Greenan Castle is a 16th-century ruined tower house, around 2+1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) southwest of Ayr in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Situated at the top of a sea cliff, it was originally a promontory fort converted into a motte-and-bailey in the 12th century. In the 15th century a tower house was built by the Lords of the Isles, which later passed into the hands of the Kennedy family.


The castle is a Z-plan tower house that dates from the fifteenth century. The lands had been held by the Clan Comyn but passed to the Grants in the fifteenth century and it became their main stronghold.
The castle was originally named Freuchie Castle and James Grant of Freuchie supported James V of Scotland.


Castle Grant stands a mile north of Grantown-on-Spey and was the former seat of the Clan Grant chiefs of Strathspey in Highlands, Scotland. It was originally named Freuchie Castle but was renamed Grant in 1694. The castle is a Category A listed building and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.


The castle was restored by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1912.
It later became derelict, but was restored in the 1990s. The property was purchased for £720,000 by businessman Craig Whyte in 2006. Castle Grant was seized by the Bank of Scotland after Whyte, who had led Rangers F.C. into its administration and liquidation in 2012, refused to make mortgage payments. It was sold in September 2014 to ex-CEO of the Russian Author Society, Sergey Fedotov, who was later arrested for fraud.


Although the Grants were Protestants, they joined James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose during the Scottish Civil War in the 1640s. The name of the castle changed from Freuchie Castle to Castle Grant in 1694 when the lands were made into the regality of Grant.
Ludovick Grant, the eighth laird, supported the Hanoverians against the Stewarts and fought against the Jacobites in both the Jacobite rising of 1715 and the Jacobite rising of 1745. However Castle Grant was occupied by the Jacobites.
In 1787, Robert Burns visited Castle Grant.


Baconsthorpe Castle, historically known as Baconsthorpe Hall, is a ruined, fortified manor house near the village of Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, England. It was established in the 15th century on the site of a former manor hall, probably by John Heydon I and his father, William. John was an ambitious lawyer with many enemies and built a tall, fortified house, but his descendants became wealthy sheep farmers, and being less worried about attack, developed the property into a more elegant, courtyard house, complete with a nearby deer park.


Baconsthorpe Castle was established by the Heydon family in the 15th century. The village of Baconsthorpe lay between Holt and Norwich, and was named after the local Bacon family. The village had two manor houses, the first in the main village and the other, called Wood Hall, on the outskirts. William Baxton had come from a relatively humble background, but by around 1400 he had bought the Bacon family's lands in the area, including half of the Wood Hall estate. William probably began the construction of the castle, then termed Baconsthorpe Hall, starting to construct the moated platform and the inner gatehouse around 1460.
William's son, John Heydon I, continued to develop the property and acquire more land around the area, changing his family name in the process to disguise his lower social origin. John was initially the political client of the William de la Pole, the Duke of Suffolk; after the duke's death, John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick became his next patron. John was an ambitious lawyer, and came to be hated and feared across the region as his power increased. By the time of his death in 1479, the inner gatehouse was completed and work on the courtyard house begun, creating the basis of a tall, fortified house. The castle demonstrated John's political aspirations and was intended to impress his peers in the region.
Sir Henry Heydon continued his father's work on the castle. Henry married into London money and became a wealthy sheep farmer, being knighted in 1485. He completed the castle's main house, service court and north-east tower. In the process, perhaps being less worried than his father about any attack on his property, he altered the character of Baconthorpe to produce what the historians Jacky Hall and Paul Drury term an "upmarket, courtyard house".


Baconsthorpe passed to Christopher's eldest son Sir William in 1623, but William died four years later during the Île de Ré expedition, leaving it to his younger brother, Sir John III. John became the Lieutenant General of the Ordnance and when civil war broke out in 1642, he fought on the side of King Charles I. In response, Parliament seized his lands and he was declared delinquent in 1646. He bought his estates back, but began to demolish Baconsthorpe around 1650 in order to sell off the stonework.
John III died in debt in 1653, leaving the castle to his son, Charles Heydon, who continued to dispose of the stone: 29 cartloads were sold the following year for £30, for reuse at Felbrigg Hall. Charles' brother, William Heydon III, sold the estate to a Mr Bridges, and then onward to a doctor called Zurishaddai Lang, who lived in the outer gatehouse. The Norfolk landowner John Thruston Mott bought the estate in 1801, and the gatehouse continued to be occupied until 1920, when one of the turrets collapsed. Although the mere was still water-filled in 1839, it was subsequently drained.
In 1940, the castle's owner, the politician Sir Charles Mott-Radclyffe, placed the site into the care of the Ministry of Public Works. In the 1950s and 1960s, the site was cleared of ivy and other vegetation, the stonework consolidated and archaeologically surveyed, before being opened to the public. The mere was dredged and refilled in 1972 and further archaeological excavations were carried out. In the 21st century, Baconsthorpe Castle is managed by English Heritage and protected under UK law as Grade I and Grade II listed buildings and as a scheduled monument.


By the end of the 16th century, the Heydons were spending beyond their means and the castle had to be mortgaged. Nonetheless, new formal gardens and a decorative mere were constructed alongside the house. Sir John Heydon III fought alongside the Royalists in the English Civil War and in retaliation was declared delinquent by Parliament in 1646. His fortunes did not recover and he began to demolish Baconsthorpe in 1650 in order to sell off its stonework. The outer gatehouse was turned into a private home and continued to be occupied until 1920, when one of its turrets collapsed. In the 21st century, the ruins of the castle are managed by English Heritage and open to visitors.
The remains of the castle consist of a moated inner court with mere to the north and an outer court and an outermost court to the south. The main surviving buildings are the inner, fortified gatehouse, dating from the 15th century, the long building used for wool manufacture, and the outer gatehouse, first built in the 16th century but much altered in later years. The outermost court holds part of the original barn, a large building that would have symbolised the Heydons' lordship of the manor.


Penrhyn Castle (Welsh: Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
The present building was built between about 1822 and 1837 to designs by Thomas Hopper on behalf of its owner, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition.


George Hay Dawkins-Pennant (1764–1840) had inherited the Penrhyn Estate on the death of his second cousin, The 1st Baron Penrhyn (first creation; 1737–1808), who had made his fortune from sugar plantations and slaves in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married an aristocratic Grenadier guardsman, Edward Gordon Douglas (1800–1886), who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1840, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. Edward, the grandson of The 14th Earl of Morton, was created The 1st Baron Penrhyn (second creation) in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1866.
After the 1822–1837 rebuild, a spiral staircase remains from the original structure, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure.
The cost of the construction of this vast "castle" is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately, as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
The 4th Baron Penrhyn died in June 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951, the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the treasury in lieu of death duties from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 139,614 visitors in 2019/20, an increase over the two previous years (118,833 and 109,395).


Château de Cognac, also known as Château de Valois and Château François, is a castle in Cognac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The castle has been rebuilt many times over the centuries.
Fortifications have existed since Hélie de Villebois, 1st Lord of Cognac built a fort around 950. Around the year 1000, Itier and Arnaud de Villebois settled on the site of Cognac and founded their dynasty there. This construction is known to us by a charter of 1030 and documents concerning the church of Saint Léger and the convent buildings which are adjacent to it, built from 1031 by the Benedictines. A small town was formed around the fort and priory.
Around 1200, the castle was rebuilt in stone, on the Charente river bank facing the docks and walls built to circle the town. Cognac passed by marriage of Amélie de Cognac to Philippe de Falcombridge, the illegitimate son of King Richard I of England. Philippe sold the lordship of to John, King of England. In 1202, John, King of England, entrusted the castle and its dependencies to Renaud II de Pons, Pons de Mirebeau and Robert de Torneham, then seneschal of Poitou. This was territory that rightfully belonged to the Count of Angoulême but had been controlled by his suzerain, the Count of Poiou since the 1180s.
After the death of King John in October 1216, Hubert de Burgh, seneschal of Poitou, had Cognac seized, sparking a war with Renaud II. Cognac was to be a source of friction for many years. King John's widow, Isabella, heiress of Anoulême, reasserted her rights over Cognac and enfeoffed her new husband, Hugh X of Lusignan. Renaud continued to wage war to keep his control of Cognac and its dependencies. De Lusignan took the castle of Cognac despite threats, including that of excommunication by Pope Honorius III. The Lusignan's undertook extensions to the castle in the 13th century.
Between 1366 and 1370, the castle of Cognac was, together with the castle of Angoulême, were the main residences of Edward, Prince of Aquitaine and Wales, the son of King Edward III of England. King Philip IV of France linked the lordship of Cognac to the crown of France, however during the Hundred Years' War, the castle changed hands during sieges and treaties. Upon the release from captivity in England of John, Count of Angoulême, after 33 years, John finds the castle abandoned and in a ruinous condition. Reconstruction began on the castle in 1450.
His son Charles, Count of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy made Cognac an intellectual and artistic centre. Their son King Francis I of France built the long facade of the castle facing the banks during 1517. Due to a lack of maintenance, the castle became ruinous during the late 17th century and 18th century. The owner Charles, Count d'Artois sold some buildings to finance repairs. The castle was sold as national property for demolition, but in 1795 was purchased by traders Messrs Otard and Dupuy, to install cellars. During the 19th  century, renovations caused the destruction of sections of the castle, however important restoration work of conservation and restoration, was also undertaken.


The Castle of La Muela (Spanish: Castillo de la Muela) is a castle in Consuegra, Spain. It was a stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller during the Middle Ages.


The castle tops off the Cerro Calderico, that also hosts a number of windmills, dominating over Consuegra.
Gifted by Alfonso VIII to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1183 along its dominions, the most relevant features of the fortification are dated after the donation, largely a number of expansions and restorations in the 12th and 13th centuries. An hermitage was built in the castle in the late 15th century. The castled endured notable damage during the Peninsular War. It became a municipal property in 1962.
The whole Cerro Calderico—along the castle and the windmills—was declared Bien de Interés Cultural under the protection status of "historical site" in 2008.


The origins of the castle are found in the period of the early Middle Ages, specifically in the 13th century, a period in which the high Guadiana was a frontier territory with Castile. The earliest registers indicated that a foral was passed by royal knight Gil Martins and his wife, D. Maria João in 1262. It is unclear whether, after this charter, the construction of the structure was begun. Owing to the interest of King Denis to consolidate his kingdom's frontiers, the castle was part of a course of fortresses that included Castle of Elvas, Castle of Juromenha and Castle of Alandroal. Another perspective suggests that the castle was actually constructed in the 15th century, during the reign of King John I of Portugal. This hypothesis is founded in the donation of the town of Terena to the Order of São Bento de Avis, which could have been the impetus for the site to be renovated from a previous garrison (although it highly dubious). By 1380, the castle and its barbican was already identified, indicating clearly that the fortress was under construction.
In 1482, King John II named Nuno Martins da Silveira as alcalde and, in the first decades of the 16th century, this redoubt was amplified during public works, that left behind several visible structures. What is clear, is that a considerable portion of the structure survived from the 14th century.
Remodeled in 1509, the architect Duarte d' Armas reoriented the entranceway through the keep tower, and erected two towers on either side of this structure.
A new foral was issued in 1512 by King Manuel I of Portugal. A couple of years later, the keep tower was remodelled again, this time by Francisco de Arruda, who altered the systems of access: he constructed a barbican, that forced the visitor to follow a path that was less direct to the main road.
In 1652, the castle was occupied and then sacked by Castilian forces commanded by the Duke of S. German. During the Portuguese Restoration War, workers completed alterations to the garrison, constructing a gate towards Spain, between two cubels.
The courtyard of the castle was damaged during the events of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, although there is no evidence that it was restored, as by that time it had already become abandoned.


The Castle of Terena is a castle in the civil parish of Terena in the municipality of Alandroal in the Portuguese subregion of Alentejo Central. Since 1946, it has been listed as a National monument.


Launceston Castle is located in the town of Launceston, Cornwall, England. It was probably built by Robert the Count of Mortain after 1068, and initially comprised an earthwork and timber castle with a large motte in one corner. Launceston Castle formed the administrative centre of the new earldom of Cornwall, with a large community packed within the walls of its bailey. It was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century and then substantially redeveloped by Richard of Cornwall after 1227, including a high tower to enable visitors to view his surrounding lands. When Richard's son, Edmund, inherited the castle, he moved the earldom's administration to Lostwithiel, triggering the castle's decline. By 1337, the castle was increasingly ruinous and used primarily as a gaol and to host judicial assizes.
The castle was captured by the rebels during the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, and was garrisoned by the Royalists during the English Civil War in the 17th century. Towards the end of the civil war it was stripped for its building materials and rendered largely uninhabitable. A small gaol was erected in the centre of the bailey, which was also used for executions. The castle eventually became the county gaol for Cornwall, but was heavily criticised for its poor facilities and treatment of inmates. By 1842, the remaining prisoners had been moved to Bodmin Gaol and the site was closed, the castle being landscaped to form a park by the Duke of Northumberland. During the Second World War, the site was used to host United States Army soldiers and, later, by the Air Ministry for offices. The ministry left the castle in 1956 and the site was reopened to visitors.
In the 21st century, Launceston is owned by the duchy of Cornwall and operated by English Heritage as a tourist attraction. Much of the castle defences remain, including the motte, keep and high tower which overlook the castle's former deer park to the south. The gatehouses and some of the curtain wall have survived, and archaeologists have uncovered the foundations of various buildings in the bailey, including the great hall.


The castle is privately owned by the Crichton family, Earls of Erne, but it is possible for the public to stay in Crom Castle's West Wing. It is available to rent all year round on a weekly or long weekend basis for groups of up to 19 people.


The castle's boathouse was built on the shore of Lough Erne below the main castle. As mentioned the castle was originally designed by Blore but was damaged  by fire in 1841 and subsequently rebuilt by George Sudden including the boathouse. The boathouse is in a Tudor style, with graceful arches at ground level, and a fine window on the upstairs room overlooking a terrace and the lake. Before modern roads and motor vehicles, one of the most common ways to travel in County Fermanagh was by boat on Lough Erne. Crom's boathouse, therefore, was an important asset, often where guests would arrive and make their way from the lough shore to the castle. For a time, it was the home of Erne Yacht Club. Today, the boathouse is empty and unused, with the jetty still in use by the Earl of Erne for his boats.


Abies balsamea or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to West Virginia).


Balsam fir is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically 14–20 metres (46–66 ft) tall, occasionally reaching a height of 27 metres (89 ft). The narrow conic crown consists of dense, dark-green leaves. The bark on young trees is smooth, grey, and with resin blisters (which tend to spray when ruptured), becoming rough and fissured or scaly on old trees. The leaves are flat and needle-like, 15 to 30 mm (5⁄8 to 1+1⁄8 in) long, dark green above often with a small patch of stomata near the tip, and two white stomatal bands below, and a slightly notched tip. They are arranged spirally on the shoot, but with the leaf bases twisted so that the leaves appear to be in two more-or-less horizontal rows on either side of the shoot. The needles become shorter and thicker the higher they are on the tree. The seed cones are erect, 40 to 80 mm (1+1⁄2 to 3+1⁄4 in) long, dark purple, ripening brown and disintegrating to release the winged seeds in September.


For thousands of years Native Americans used Balsam fir for medicinal and therapeutic purposes. The needles are digested directly off the tree by many animals and humans. Higher content dosage is ingested in tea. Balsam Fir contains vitamin C, which has been studied for its effects on bacterial and viral infections.


There are two varieties:
Abies balsamea var. balsamea (balsam fir) – bracts subtending seed scales short, not visible on the closed cones. Most of the species' range.
Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis (bracted balsam fir or Canaan fir) – bracts subtending seed scales longer, visible on the closed cone. The southeast of the species' range, from southernmost Quebec to West Virginia. The name Canaan fir derives from one of its native localities, the Canaan Valley in West Virginia. Some botanists regard this variety as a natural hybrid between balsam fir and Fraser fir (Abies fraseri), which occurs further south in the Appalachian mountains.


Balsam firs tend to grow in cool climates, ideally with a mean annual temperature of 40 °F (4 °C), with consistent moisture at their roots. They typically grow in the following four forest types:
Swamp – swamp forest types never completely dry out, so balsam firs have constant access to water. The ground is covered in sphagnum and other mosses. In swamps, balsam firs grow densely and slowly, and are slender.
Flat – sometimes referred to as "dry swamps," these areas are better drained than swamps but still retain moisture well. Fern moss covers the ground and there is a possibility of ground rot. In flat areas balsam fir grows fast, tall, and large, mixed with red spruce.
Hardwood slope – ground rot is common in this well-drained area, and leaf litter covers the forest floor. Balsam firs grow fast, tall, and large along with big hardwood trees such as yellow birch, sugar maple and beech.
Mountain top – On mountain tops, stands of balsam fir occasionally develop fir waves. They often grow at an elevation of 760 to 1,520 m (2,500 to 5,000 ft) in pure strands, or in association with black spruce, white spruce, and trembling aspen. The development is similar to that in swamps with slow growth resulting in slender, short trees. Some of the low branches touch the ground, and may grow roots to produce an independent tree.
The foliage is browsed by moose and deer. The seeds are eaten by American red squirrels, grouse, and pine mice; the tree also provides food for crossbills and chickadees, as well as shelter for moose, snowshoe hares, white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, and other small mammals and songbirds. The needles are eaten by some lepidopteran caterpillars, for example the Io moth (Automeris io).
Abies balsamea is one of the most cold-hardy trees known, surviving at temperatures as low as −45 °C (−49 °F) (USDA Hardiness Zone 2). Specimens even showed no ill effects when immersed in liquid nitrogen at −196 °C (−320.8 °F).


It is listed as endangered in Connecticut. This status applies to native populations only.


The balsam fir is the preferred main host of the eastern spruce budworm, which is a major destructive pest throughout the eastern United States and Canada. During cyclical population outbreaks, major defoliation of the balsam fir can occur, which may significantly reduce radial growth. This can kill the tree. An outbreak in Quebec in 1957 killed over 75% of balsam fir in some stands.
The needles of balsam fir can be infected by the fungus Delphinella balsameae.


Both varieties of the species are very popular as Christmas trees, particularly in the northeastern United States. Balsam firs cut for Christmas are not taken from the forest, but are grown on large plantations. The balsam fir is one of the greatest exports of Quebec and New England. It is celebrated for its rich green needles, natural conical shape, and needle retention after being cut, and it is notably the most fragrant of all Christmas tree varieties.
Many of these plantations are family farms handed down from generation to generation. The techniques of shearing, growing, and other cultivation secretly passed down from grandparents to grandchildren. Families like the Rousseau's of Quebec, Rose of New Brunswick, and Kessler's (North Pole Xmas Trees) of New Hampshire have kept family traditions for almost a century.
The balsam fir was used six times for the US Capitol Christmas Tree between 1964 and 2019.
In northern areas of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin balsam fir branches (boughs) are used to make Christmas wreaths.


Abies balsamea is also grown as an ornamental tree for parks and gardens. Very hardy down to −20 °C (−4 °F) or below, it requires a sheltered spot in full sun. The dwarf cultivar A. balsamea 'Hudson’ (Hudson fir), grows to only 1 m (3.3 ft) tall by 1.5 m (4.9 ft) broad, and has distinctive blue-green foliage with pale undersides. It does not bear cones. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Other cultivars include:-
‘Angustata’
'Argentea'
'Brachylepis'
'Coerulea'
'Columnaris'
'Glauca'
'Globosa'
'Longifolia'
'Lutescens'
'Macrocarpa'
'Marginata'
'Nana'
'Nudicaulis'
'Paucifolia'
'Prostrata'
'Pyramidalis'
'Variegata'
'Versicolor'


The resin is used to produce Canada balsam, and was traditionally used as a cold remedy and as a glue for glasses, optical instrument components, and for preparing permanent mounts of microscope specimens. Given its use as a traditional remedy and the relatively high ascorbic acid content of its needles, historian Jacques Mathieu has argued that the balsam fir was the "aneda" that cured scurvy during the second expedition into Canada of Jacques Cartier. The wood is milled for framing lumber (part of SPF lumber), siding and pulped for paper manufacture. Balsam fir oil is an EPA approved nontoxic rodent repellent. The balsam fir is also used as an air freshener and as incense.
Prior to the availability of foam rubber and air mattresses, balsam fir boughs were a preferred mattress in places where trees greatly outnumbered campers. Many fir limbs are vertically bowed from alternating periods of downward deformation from snow loading and new growth reaching upward for sunlight. Layers of inverted freshly cut limbs from small trees created a pleasantly fragrant mattress lifting bedding off the wet ground; and the bowed green limbs were springs beneath the soft needles. Upper layers of limbs were placed with the cut ends of the limbs touching the earth to avoid uncomfortably sharp spots and sap.


Abies concolor, the white fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Cascade Range and southern Rocky Mountains, and into the isolated mountain ranges of southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. It naturally occurs at elevations between 900–3,400 metres (3,000–11,200 ft).
It is popular as an ornamental landscaping tree and as a Christmas tree.


This large evergreen conifer grows best in the central Sierra Nevada of California, where the record specimen was recorded as 74.9 metres (246 feet) tall and measured 4.6 m (15 ft) in diameter at breast height (dbh) in Yosemite National Park. The typical size of white fir ranges from 25–60 m (82–197 ft) tall and up to 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) dbh. The largest specimens are found in the central Sierra Nevada, where the largest diameter recorded was found in Sierra National Forest at 58.5 m × 8.5 m (192 ft × 28 ft) (1972); the west slope of the Sierra Nevada is also home to the tallest specimen on record, 78.8 m (259 ft) in height. Abies concolor subsp. concolor (Rocky mountain white fir) rarely exceeds 38 m (125 ft) tall or 0.9 m (3 ft) dbh. Large (but not huge) trees in good soil range from 40 to 60 m (130 to 200 ft) tall and from 99 to 165 centimetres (39 to 65 in) dbh in California and southwestern Oregon and to 41 m (135 ft) tall and 124 cm (49 in) dbh in Arizona and New Mexico. The dead tree tops sometimes fork into new growth.
The gray bark is usually at least 10 cm (4 in) thick, and brown-hued inside. The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 2.5–8 cm (1–3+1⁄8 in) long and 2 millimetres (3⁄32 in) wide by 0.5–1 mm (1⁄64–3⁄64 in) thick, green to glaucous blue-green above, and with two glaucous blue-white bands of stomatal bloom below, and slightly notched to bluntly pointed at the tip. The leaf arrangement is spiral on the shoot, but with each leaf variably twisted at the base so they all lie in either two more-or-less flat ranks on either side of the shoot, or upswept across the top of the shoot but not below the shoot.
The cones are 6–12 cm (2+1⁄4–4+3⁄4 in) long and 4–4.5 cm (1+5⁄8–1+3⁄4 in) broad, green or purple ripening pale brown, with about 100–150 scales; the scale bracts are short, and hidden in the closed cone. The winged seeds are released when the cones disintegrate at maturity about 6 months after pollination.
White fir can live over 300 years.


As treated here, there are two subspecies; these are also variously treated at either the lower rank of variety by some authors, or as distinct species by others:


White fir was first collected by Augustus Fendler on his expedition to the Santa Fe area of New Mexico in 1846–1847. Fender's patron George Engelmann, a St. Louis area physician and botanist, then described the plant. This tree was first collected in California by William Lobb on his expedition to California of 1849–1853, after it was overlooked by David Douglas in his 1825–27 expedition to the Pacific coast region.
The specific epithet concolor means "all one color".


This tree is native to the mountains of western North America from the southern Cascade Range in Oregon, south throughout California and into the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in northern Baja California, and south throughout the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado, and into the isolated mountain ranges of southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. It naturally occurs between 900 to 3,400 m (3,000 to 11,200 ft) above sea level.


White fir is very closely related to grand fir (Abies grandis), with subspecies lowiana being particularly similar to the interior variety of grand fir, A. grandis var. idahoensis, intergrading with it where they meet in the Cascades of Central Oregon. White fir occupies a broader range, including dryer and colder sites, being more drought tolerant and having thicker, fire-resistant bark. In Mexico, it is replaced by further close relatives, Durango fir (A. durangensis) and Mexican fir (A. mexicana).
Like grand fir, white fir is more shade tolerant than Douglas fir, but less so than western hemlock and western redcedar. White fir is a climax species, which means the forest has reached complex maturity in forest succession in western coniferous forests of the U.S. White fir and yellow pine (ponderosa pine/Jeffrey pine) have co-existed for millennia in old growth forests throughout their range. In the presence of logging of large diameter trees and exclusion of cleansing wildfires, young trees have become abundant over the past two centuries. White fir had been regarded as a pest in the past by those in the lumber industry, but this opinion has changed. White fir is now one of the most important of all commercial softwoods according to the Western Wood Products Association.
The white fir trait of retaining lower limbs creates an escape route for medium-to-small forest birds (such as spotted owl) from larger flying predators and provides a drip zone around the roots for collecting moisture. The retained limbs can become a fuel ladder that allows flames to climb up to the canopy. Limbing-up white fir, instead of removing medium to large diameter trees, in areas where the public is more likely to start fires can help keep other trees and specifically giant sequoia from experiencing canopy fire. Recent concern for sequoia groves has caused agencies to call for removal of white fir in the Sierra Nevada. While sequoia seedlings and young saplings are highly susceptible to mortality or serious injury by fire; mature sequoias are fire adapted with: fire-resistant bark, elevated canopies, self-pruning lower branches, latent buds, and serotinous cones. The sequoia ecosystem is incomplete without the mixed pine/fir and oak that make up the mid and understory. Giant Sequoia's cones release seeds when the heat of fire triggers them to open while the thick bark protects the inner cambium from fire damage.
This tree is host to fir mistletoe (Phoradendron pauciflorum), a parasitic plant. It is attacked by many types of insects, such as the fir engraver (Scolytus ventralis).


Mature white fir–yellow pine forests support old-growth dependent wildlife species such as California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis), Mount Pinos sooty grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus howardi), and Pacific fisher (Pekania pennanti). The spotted owl and fisher utilize cavities in decadent large-diameter white fir for nesting and denning. The Mount Pinos sooty grouse requires large diameter trees for thermal cover and its winter diet consists of mostly white fir and yellow pine needles. This subspecies of sooty grouse has been extirpated along with a significant number of large diameter white fir from much of its range. Other subspecies of sooty grouse also utilize Douglas fir, which does not occur in the range of Mount Pinos sooty grouse. Squirrel also frequent the tree's branches.
Deer browse the foliage of this species and porcupines chew the bark. Songbirds, grouse, and various mammals eat the seeds.


White fir and grand fir were used by Native Americans for medicinal use involving powdered bark or pitch to treat tuberculosis or skin ailments. The Nlaka'pamux used the bark to cover lodges and make canoes. Branches were also used as bedding.
White fir is a preferred construction species because of its nail-holding ability, lightness in weight, and resistance to split, twist, and pitch. It is straight-grained, non-resinous, fine-textured, stiff, and strong.
It is popular as a Christmas tree and for Christmas decoration owing to its soft needles, generally excellent needle retention and abundance. It is often marketed as concolor or white fir.


White fir is widely planted as an ornamental tree in parks and larger gardens, particularly some cultivars of subsp. concolor selected for very bright glaucous blue foliage, such as cv. 'Violacea'. The dwarf cultivar 'Compacta', growing to a maximum height and spread of 2.5 m (8.2 ft), has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Abies grandis (grand fir, giant fir, lowland white fir, great silver fir, western white fir, Vancouver fir, or Oregon fir) is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California of North America, occurring at altitudes of sea level to 1,700 metres (5,600 ft). It is a major constituent of the Grand Fir/Douglas Fir Ecoregion of the Cascade Range.
The tree typically grows to 40–70 m (130–230 ft) in height, and may be the tallest Abies species in the world. There are two varieties, the taller coast grand fir, found west of the Cascade Mountains, and the shorter interior grand fir, found east of the Cascades. It was first described in 1831 by David Douglas.
It is closely related to white fir. The bark was historically believed to have medicinal properties, and it is popular in the United States as a Christmas tree. Its lumber is a softwood, and it is harvested as a hem fir. It is used in paper-making, as well as construction for framing and flooring, where it is desired for its resistance to splitting and splintering.