In 1100, after the area was captured by the Crusaders, the enclosure once again became a church and Muslims were no longer permitted to enter. During this period, the area was given a new gabled roof, clerestory windows and vaulting.
When the Crusaders took control of the site Jews were banned from using the synagogues.
In the year 1113 during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, according to Ali of Herat (writing in 1173), a certain part over the cave of Abraham had given way, and "a number of Franks had made their entrance therein". And they discovered "(the bodies) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", "their shrouds having fallen to pieces, lying propped up against a wall...Then the King, after providing new shrouds, caused the place to be closed once more". Similar information is given in Ibn al Athir's Chronicle under the year 1119; "In this year was opened the tomb of Abraham, and those of his two sons Isaac and Jacob ...Many people saw the Patriarch. Their limbs had nowise been disturbed, and beside them were placed lamps of gold and of silver." The Damascene nobleman and historian Ibn al-Qalanisi in his chronicle also alludes at this time to the discovery of relics purported to be those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a discovery that excited eager curiosity among all three communities in the southern Levant, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian.
Towards the end of the period of Crusader rule, in 1166 Maimonides visited Hebron and wrote, "On Sunday, 9 Marheshvan (17 October), I left Jerusalem for Hebron to kiss the tombs of my ancestors in the Cave. On that day, I stood in the cave and prayed, praise be to God, (in gratitude) for everything."
In 1170, Benjamin of Tudela visited the city, which he called by its Frankish name, St. Abram de Bron. He reported:
"Here that there is the great church called St. Abram, and this was a Jewish place of worship at the time of the Mohammedan rule, but the Gentiles have erected there six tombs, respectively called those of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. The custodians tell the pilgrims that these are the tombs of the Patriarchs, for which information the pilgrims give them money. If a Jew comes, however, and gives a special reward, the custodian of the cave opens unto him a gate of iron, which was constructed by our forefathers, and then he is able to descend below by means of steps, holding a lighted candle in his hand. He then reaches a cave, in which nothing is to be found, and a cave beyond, which is likewise empty, but when he reaches the third cave behold there are six sepulchres, those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, respectively facing those of Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, upon which the names of the three Patriarchs and their wives are inscribed in Hebrew characters. The cave is filled with barrels containing bones of people, which are taken there as to a sacred place. At the end of the field of the Machpelah stands Abraham's house with a spring in front of it".


Between 1318 and 1320, the Mamluk governor of Gaza, a province that included Hebron, Sanjar al-Jawli ordered the construction of the Amir Jawli Mosque within the Haram enclosure to enlarge the prayer space and accommodate worshipers. In the late 14th century, under the Mamluks, two additional entrances were pierced into the western end of the south western side and the kalah was extended upwards to the level of the rest of the enclosure. A cenotaph in memory of Joseph was created in the upper level of the kalah so that visitors to the enclosure would not need to leave and travel round the outside just to pay respects. The Mamluks also built the northwestern staircase and the six cenotaphs (for Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah, Abraham, and Sarah, respectively), distributed evenly throughout the enclosure. The Mamluks forbade Jews from entering the site, allowing them only as close as the fifth step on a staircase at the southeast, but after some time this was increased to the seventh step.


During the Ottoman period, the dilapidated state of the patriarchs' tombs was restored to a semblance of sumptuous dignity. Ali Bey, one of the few foreigners to gain access, reported in 1807 that,
all the sepulchres of the patriarchs are covered with rich carpets of green silk, magnificently embroidered with gold; those of the wives are red, embroidered in like manner. The sultans of Constantinople furnish these carpets, which are renewed from time to time. Ali Bey counted nine, one over the other, upon the sepulchre of Abraham.
A contemporary traveller, M. Ermete Pierotti, in 1862 described the great jealousy with which the Muslims guard the sanctuary and the practice of sending petitions to the patriarchs:
The true entrance to the Patriarchs' tomb is to be seen close to the western wall of the enclosure, and near the north-west comer; it is guarded by a very thick iron railing, and I was not allowed to go near it. I observed that the Mussulmans themselves did not go very near it. In the court opposite the entrance gate of the Mosque, there is an opening, through which I was allowed to go down for three steps, and I was able to ascertain by sight and touch that the rock exists there, and to conclude it to be about five feet thick. From the short observations I could make during my brief descent, as also from the consideration of the east wall of the Mosque, and the little information I extracted from the Chief Santon, who jealously guards the sanctuary, I consider that a part of the grotto exists under the Mosque, and that the other part is under the court, but at a lower level than that lying under the Mosque. This latter must be separated from the former by a vertical stratum of rock which contains an opening, as I conclude, for two reasons : first, because the east wall being entirely solid and massive, requires a good foundation; secondly, because the petitions which the Mussulmans present to the Santon to be transmitted to the Patriarchs are thrown, some through one opening, some through the other, according to the Patriarch to whom they are directed; and the Santon goes down by the way I went, whence I suppose that on that side there is a vestibule, and that the tombs may be found below it. I explained my conjectures to the Santon himself after leaving the Mosque, and he showed himself very much surprised at the time, and told the Pacha afterwards that I knew more about it than the Turks themselves. The fact is that even the Pacha who governs the province has no right to penetrate into the sacred enclosure, where (according to the Mussulman legend) the Patriarchs are living, and only condescend to receive the petitions addressed to them by mortals.


Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in the Six-Day War, Hebron came under Jewish control for the first time in 2,000 years and the 700-year-long restriction limiting Jews to the seventh step outside was lifted.
According to the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, Major general Rabbi Shlomo Goren's autobiography on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War, he made his way from Gush Etzion to Hebron. In Hebron he realized that the Arabs had surrendered and quickly made his way to the Cave of the Patriarchs. He shot at the doors of the mosque with his Uzi submachine gun. But when that was ineffective in prying the doors open, he attached chains to his Jeep and the doors, proceeding to pull them down. He entered the mosque and began to pray, becoming the first Jew to enter the compound for about 700 years. While praying, a messenger from the Mufti of Hebron delivered a surrender note to him, whereby the rabbi replied "This place, Ma'arat HaMachpela, is a place of prayer and peace. Surrender elsewhere."
The first Jew to enter the underground caves was Michal Arbel, the 13-year-old daughter of Yehuda Arbel, chief of Shin Bet operations in the West Bank, because she was slender enough to be lowered into the narrow, 28 centimetres (11 in) wide hole on 9 October 1968, to gain access to the tomb site, after which she took photographs.
Israeli settlers reestablished a small synagogue under the mosque. The first Jewish wedding ceremony to take place in it was on 7 August 1968. The stone stairway leading to the mosque was also destroyed in order to erase the humiliating "seventh step".
In 1968, a special arrangement was made to accommodate Jewish services on the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement. This led to a hand-grenade being thrown on the stairway leading to the tomb on 9 October; 47 Israelis were injured, 8 seriously. On 4 November, a large explosion went off near the gate to the compound and 6 people, Jews and Arabs, were wounded. On Yom Kippur eve, 3 October 1976, an Arab mob destroyed several Torah scrolls and prayer books at the tomb. In May 1980, an attack on Jewish worshippers returning from prayers at the tomb left 6 dead and 17 wounded.
In 1981, a group of Jewish settlers from the Hebron community lead by Noam Arnon broke into the caves and took photos of the burial chambers.
Tensions would later increase as the Israeli government signed the Oslo Accords in September 1993, which gave limited autonomy to the PLO in the West Bank city of Jericho and the Gaza Strip. The city of Hebron and the rest of the major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank were not included in the initial agreement. The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American settler in February 1994, left 29 Palestinian Muslims dead and scores injured. The resulting riots resulted in a further 35 deaths.
The increased sensitivity of the site meant that in 1996 the Wye River Accords, part of the Arab–Israeli peace process, included a temporary status agreement for the site restricting access for both Jews and Muslims. As part of this agreement, the waqf (Islamic charitable trust) controls 81% of the building. This includes the whole of the southeastern section, which lies above the only known entrance to the caves and possibly over the entirety of the caves themselves. As a consequence, Jews are not permitted to visit the Cenotaphs of Isaac or Rebecca, which lie entirely within the southeastern section, except for 10 days a year that hold special significance in Judaism. One of these days is the Shabbat Chayei Sarah, when the Torah portion concerning the death of Sarah and the purchase by Abraham of the land in which the caves are situated, is read.
The Israeli authorities do not allow Jewish religious authorities the right to maintain the site and allow only the waqf to do so. Tourists are permitted to enter the site. Security at the site has increased since the Intifada; the Israel Defense Forces surround the site with soldiers and control access to the shrines. Israeli forces also subject locals to checkpoints and bar all non-Jews from setting foot on some of the main roads to the complex and ban Palestinian vehicles from many of the roads in the area.
On 21 February 2010, Israel announced that it would include the site in a national heritage site protection and rehabilitation plan. The announcement sparked protests from the UN, Arab governments and the United States. A subsequent UNESCO vote in October aimed to affirm that the "al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron"
was "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories."
Israeli authorities have placed restrictions on calling the faithful to prayer by the muezzin of the Ibrahimi mosque. The order was enforced 61 times in October 2014, and 52 times in December of that year. This was following numerous complaints by the Jewish residents who claim that the calls violate legal decibel limits. In December 2009 Israeli authorities banned Jewish music played at the cave following similar complaints from the Arab residents.


The rectangular stone enclosure lies on a northwest–southeast axis, and is divided into two sections by a wall running between the northwestern three fifths, and the southeastern two fifths. The northwestern section is roofed on three sides, the central area and north eastern side being open to the sky; the southeastern section is fully roofed, the roof being supported by four columns evenly distributed through the section.
Nearly the entire building itself was built by King Herod and it remains the only Herodian building surviving today virtually intact.
In the northwestern section are four cenotaphs, each housed in a separate octagonal room, those dedicated to Jacob and Leah being on the northwest, and those to Abraham and Sarah on the southeast. A corridor runs between the cenotaphs on the northwest, and another between those on the southeast. A third corridor runs the length of the southwestern side, through which access to the cenotaphs, and to the southeastern section, can be gained. An entrance to the enclosure exists on the southwestern side, entering this third corridor; a mosque outside this entrance must be passed through to gain access.
At the center of the northeastern side, there is another entrance, which enters the roofed area on the southeastern side of the northwestern section and through which access can also be gained to the southeastern (fully roofed) section. This entrance is approached on the outside by a corridor which leads from a long staircase running most of the length of the northwestern side. The southeastern section, which functions primarily as a mosque, contains two cenotaphs, symmetrically placed, near the center, dedicated to Isaac and Rebecca. Between them, in the southeastern wall, is a mihrab. The cenotaphs have a distinctive red and white horizontal striped pattern to their stonework but are usually covered by decorative cloth.
Under the present arrangements, Jews are restricted to entering by the southwestern side, and limited to the southwestern corridor and the corridors that run between the cenotaphs, while Muslims may enter only by the northeastern side but are allowed free rein of the remainder of the enclosure.


The caves under the enclosure are not themselves generally accessible; the waqf have historically prevented access to the actual tombs out of respect for the dead. Only two entrances are known to exist, the most visible of which is located to the immediate southeast of Abraham's cenotaph on the inside of the southeastern section. This entrance is a narrow shaft covered by a decorative grate, which itself is covered by an elaborate dome. The other entrance is located to the southeast, near the mihrab, and is sealed by a large stone, and usually covered by prayer mats; this is very close to the location of the seventh step on the outside of the enclosure, beyond which the Mamelukes forbade Jews from approaching.
When the enclosure was controlled by crusaders, access was occasionally possible. One account, by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela dating from 1163 CE, states that after passing through an iron door, and descending, the caves would be encountered. According to Benjamin of Tudela, there was a sequence of three caves, the first two of which were empty; in the third cave were six tombs, arranged to be opposite to one another.

These caves had been rediscovered only in 1119 CE by a monk named Arnoul, after an unnamed monk at prayer "noticed a draught" in the area near the present location of the mihrab and, with other "brethren", removed the flagstones and found a room lined with Herodian masonry. Arnoul, still searching for the source of the draught, hammered on the cave walls until he heard a hollow sound, pulled down the masonry in that area, and discovered a narrow passage. The narrow passage, which subsequently became known as the serdab (Arabic for passage), was similarly lined with masonry, but partly blocked up. Having unblocked the passage, Arnoul discovered a large round room with plastered walls. In the floor of the room, he found a square stone slightly different from the others and, upon removing it, found the first of the caves. The caves were filled with dust. After removing the dust, Arnoul found bones; believing the bones to be those of the biblical Patriarchs, Arnoul washed them in wine and stacked them neatly. Arnoul carved inscriptions on the cave walls describing whose bones he believed them to be.
This passage to the caves was sealed at some time after Saladin had recaptured the area, though the roof of the circular room was pierced, and a decorative grate was placed over it. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, the area fell into the hands of the Israel Defense Forces, and Moshe Dayan, the Defence Minister, who was an amateur archaeologist, attempted to regain access to the tombs. Ignorant of the serdab entrance, Dayan concentrated his attention on the shaft visible below the decorative grate and had the idea of sending someone thin enough to fit through the shaft and down into the chamber below. Dayan eventually found a slim 12-year-old girl named Michal to assist and sent her into the chamber with a camera.
Michal explored the round chamber, but failed to find the square stone in the floor that led to the caves. Michal did, however, explore the passage and find steps leading up to the surface, though the exit was blocked by a large stone (this is the entrance near the mihrab). According to the report of her findings, which Michal gave to Dayan after having been lifted back through the shaft, there are 16 steps leading down into the passage, which is 1 cubit wide, 17.37 metres (57.0 ft) and 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) high. In the round chamber, which is 12 metres (39 ft) below the entrance to the shaft, there are three stone slabs, the middle of which contains a partial inscription of Sura 2, verse 255, from the Quran, the famous Ayatul Kursi, Verse of the Throne.
In 1981, Seev Jevin, the former director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, entered the passage after a group of Jewish settlers from Hebron had entered the chamber via the entrance near the mihrab and discovered the square stone in the round chamber that concealed the cave entrance. The reports state that after entering the first cave, which seemed to Jevin to be empty, he found a passage leading to a second oval chamber, smaller than the first, which contained shards of pottery and a wine jug. Findings published in the Israel Exploration Journal in 2020 stated that the pottery dated from the 8th century BCE and originated from various locations in the Hebron and Jerusalem areas.


According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham specifically purchased the land for use as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite, making it one of two purchases by Abraham of real estate in the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land. The book describes how the three patriarchs and their wives, the matriarchs, were buried there.
Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 23:1–20; Genesis 49:31)
Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 35:29; Genesis 49:31)
Jacob and Leah (Genesis 49:28–33; Genesis 50:4–5; Genesis 50:12–13)
The only matriarch missing is Jacob's other wife, Rachel, described in Genesis as having been buried  near Bethlehem. These verses are the common source for the religious beliefs surrounding the cave. While they are not part of the Quran they exist in Islam's oral tradition. The story of Abraham's burial is recounted in, for example, Ibn Kathir's 14th century Stories of the Prophets.
Jewish midrashic literature avows that, in addition to the patriarch couples, Adam, the first man, and his wife, Eve, were also interred in the Cave of the Patriarchs, a tradition supported by ancient Samaritan texts. The tradition is supported by the simple wording of Genesis 23:2, which refers to "Kiryat Arba... Hevron" ("arba" means 'four'). Commenting on that passage, Rashi listed the four couples chronologically, starting with Adam and Eve.
Another Jewish tradition tells that when Jacob was brought to be buried in the cave, Esau prevented the burial, claiming that he had the right to be buried in the cave; after some negotiation Naphtali was sent to Egypt to retrieve the document stating Esau sold his part in the cave to Jacob. As this was going on, Hushim, the son of Dan, and who was hard of hearing, did not understand what was transpiring, and why his grandfather was not being buried, so he asked for an explanation; after being given one he became angry and said: "Is my grandfather to lie there in contempt until Naphtali returns from the land of Egypt?" He then took a club and killed Esau, and Esau's head rolled into the cave. This implies that the head of Esau is also buried in the cave. Some Jewish sources record the selling of Esau's right to be buried in the cave—according to a commentary on the "Book of Exodus", Jacob gave all his possessions to acquire a tomb in the Cave of the Patriarchs. He put a large pile of gold and silver before Esau and asked, "My brother, do you prefer your portion of this cave, or all this gold and silver?" Esau's selling to Jacob his right to be buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs is also recorded in Sefer HaYashar.
An early Jewish text, the Genesis Rabbah, states that this site is one of three that enemies of Judaism cannot taunt the Jews by saying "you have stolen them," as it was purchased "for its full price" by Abraham.
According to the Midrash, the Patriarchs were buried in the cave because the cave is the threshold to the Garden of Eden. The Patriarchs are said not to be dead but "sleeping". They rise to beg mercy for their children throughout the generations. According to the Zohar, this tomb is the gateway through which souls enter into Gan Eden (heaven).
There are Hebrew prayers of supplication for marriage on the walls of the Sarah cenotaph.


Muslims believe that Muhammed visited Hebron on his nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem to stop by the tomb and pay his respects. For this reason the tomb quickly became a popular Islamic pilgrimage site. It was said that Muhammad himself encouraged the activity, saying "He who cannot visit me, let him visit the Tomb of Abraham" and "He who visits the Tomb of Abraham, Allah abolishes his sins."
According to one tradition, childless women threw petitions addressed to Sarah, known for giving birth at an advanced age, through a hole in the mosque floor to the caves below.
After the conquest of the city by Umar, this holy place was "simply taken over from the Jewish tradition" by the new rulers; the Herodian enclosure was converted into a mosque and placed under the control of a waqf. The waqf continues to maintain most of the site, while the Israeli military controls access to the site.
According to some Islamic sources the cave is also the tomb of Joseph. Though the Bible has Joseph buried in Shechem (the present-day Palestinian city of Nablus), Jewish aggadic tradition conserved the idea that he wished to be interred at Hebron, and the Islamic version may reflect this. The Jewish apocryphal book, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, also states that this is the burial place of Jacob's twelve sons.
According to some sources, the mosque is the 4th holiest in Islam; other sources rank other sites as 4th.
A Fatimid-era minbar is kept at the mosque. According to an Arabic inscription written on the minbar, it was commissioned by Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali during the reign of Caliph al-Mustansir when he discovered the head of Husayn ibn Ali in 1092 CE (448 AH) at Ashkelon and kept it at a mosque and shrine there.


Caversham Bridge is a bridge across the River Thames between Caversham and the town centre of Reading. The bridge is situated on the reach above Caversham Lock, carrying the A4155 road across the river and also providing pedestrian access to the adjacent mid-river Pipers Island.
The first bridge on the site was built sometime between 1163, when a famous trial by combat was fought on nearby De Montfort Island, and 1231, when Henry III wrote to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire, commanding him:
"to go in person, taking with him good and lawful men of his county, to the chapel of St Anne on the bridge at Reading over the Thames one side of which is built on the fee of William Earl Marshal and by the view and testimony of those men see that the abbot has the same seisin of the said chapel as he had on the day the said earl died."
William Marshal was the first Earl of Pembroke, the principal landowner in the Caversham area, and regent during the early years of Henry's reign. He had died at his home at Caversham Park in 1218.
The old bridge was the site of a skirmish during the English Civil War in 1643 and was left with a wooden drawbridge structure on the Berkshire half. The bridge was still in this state when it was depicted by Joseph Mallord William Turner in 1806/7, in a painting entitled Caversham Bridge with Cattle in the Water.
In 1869, the entire bridge was replaced by an iron lattice construction. When Reading Bridge was completed in 1923 work began on replacing Caversham Bridge with the current structure which is of concrete with a granite balustrade. It was opened in 1926 by Edward Prince of Wales.


The earliest reference to Celje Castle dates from 1322 and calls it “purch Cylie”. Later, the castle was known by various names, including “vest Cili” (1341), “castrum Cilie” (1451), “gsloss Obercili” (1468). It is noteworthy that the name “Obercili” - Upper Celje - only appears after the Counts of Celje had died out. Its original name was “grad Celje” (Celje Castle).
The first fortified building on the site (a Romanesque palace) was built in the first half of the 13th century by the Counts of Heunburg from Carinthia on the stony outcrop on the western side of the ridge where the castle stands. It had five sides, or four plus the southern side, which was a natural defence. The first written records of the castle date back to between 1125 and 1137; it was probably built by Count Gunter. In the western section of the castle, there was a building with several floors. Remains of the walls of this palatium have survived. In the eastern section, there was an enclosed courtyard with large water reservoirs. The eastern wall, which protects the castle from its most exposed side, was around three metres thicker than the rest of the curtain wall. The wall was topped with a parapet and protected walkway. This was typical of Ministerialis castles of the time.


The first castle was probably burned and destroyed in the fighting between the Lords of Sanneck and the Lords of Auffenstein. The gateway was later moved from the northern side by freemen loyal to the Lords of Sanneck. They gave the castle a new curtain wall and reinforced this with a tower on the northern side, which guarded the entrance to the inner ward, sometime before 1300. The new wall reached from a natural cliff in the east to the remains of the earlier wall in the northeast. The entrance was moved to the southern side, where it still is today.
In 1333, the castle came into the possession of the Lords of Sanneck, who from 1341 onward were the Counts of Celje. They set about transforming the fortress into a comfortable living quarter and their official residence. Around 1400, they added a four-storey tower which was later called Friderikov stolp (Frederick's tower, from bergfrid, modern German Bergfried, the term for the central tower of a castle in the Middle Ages). On the eastern side of the courtyard, there was a tall, three-story residential tower, which is the best preserved section of the castle after Friderikov stolp. The main residential building (a palatium), which also had rooms for women, stood however in the western section of the castle. This part of the castle ends at the narrow outer ward and is in a state of disrepair. On the southern side of the palatium, there was a tower, known as Andrejev stolp (Andrew's tower), after the chapel on the ground floor, which was dedicated to Saint Andrew. In the Middle Ages, the castle walls were impenetrable; an attacker would have had to rely on starving the defenders into submission, but a hidden passageway led from the castle to a nearby granary. The Counts of Celje stopped living in the castle in this period, but they stationed a castellan with an armed entourage here.
During an earthquake in 1348, part of the Romanesque palace and the rock on which it stood were destroyed. The ruined section was rebuilt and relocated towards the bailey. In the 15th century, the outer ward was extended on the eastern side of the ridge as far as the rocky outcrop. Here, the wall connected with a powerful, five-sided tower. In the second half of the 16th century, the castle was once again renovated. The walls in the inner and outer wards were made taller, and the bailey was renovated. The modern sections of the walls feature Renaissance-era balistraria.


The first imperial caretaker, Krištof pl. Ungnad, was named in 1461. The second, Jurij pl. Apfaltrer, was named just two years later. The castle entered the care of Andrej pl. Hohenwart in 1470. When he took it over, he swore to take good care of it and to keep it in a good condition. He carried out this service until his death in 1503. He was succeeded as castle caretaker by Jakob pl. Landau, the government administrator in Upper and Lower Swabia. Landau obtained the position from Emperor Maximilian I, who was at the time still the King of the Romans, for having lent him 10,000 crowns. Landau was still castle caretaker in 1514. Two years later, Bernard Raunacher briefly held this position, but the emperor ordered him to hand authority to Gašper Herbst and to make do with the income generated by Rudolfswert (later Novo Mesto). Other caretakers followed, most of whom were at the same time vicedominus and the administrator of various taxes. The castle's importance as a fortress rapidly gave way to its economic role.
Celje Castle was not only the most important castle in Slovenia, but in the entire eastern Alps. It covered an area of almost 5500 m². From the ruins that remain and from depictions of the castle that have survived, it is possible to paint a detailed picture of how it once looked. Several new techniques were employed in the castle's architectural development, which were the model for other castles in the region under Celje's influence.
The castle began to fall into disrepair shortly after losing its strategic importance.  Georg Matthäus Vischer’s depiction of the castle from 1681 shows that Friderikov stolp no longer had a roof at the end of the 17th century. During the renovation of the lower castle (the section closest to the town) in 1748, the castle’s tiled roof was removed. When Count Gaisruck bought the castle in 1755, he removed the roof truss as well. The best stones were then re-used in the construction of the Novo Celje Mansion between Petrovče and Žalec. From this time onward, it was no longer possible to live in the castle, and it slowly turned into a complete ruin. The last residents left the site in 1795.
In 1803, the farmer Andrej Gorišek bought the castle and began to use the site as a quarry.


In 1846, the governor of the Styria, Count Wickenburg, bought the ruins and donated them to the Styrian estates. In 1871, interest in the ruins began to take hold and in 1882 the Celje museum society began efforts to restore the castle, which continue to this day. During the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the authorities in Maribor left control over the ruins to the local municipality, which made great contributions to the castle's preservation. During World War II, the ruins were abandoned, but reconstruction efforts continued after the war. In the corners of the Friderikov stolp, cement blocks were used to replace missing stones. A proper parking lot was also created in front of the entrance to the castle. On the northern side, the wall was knocked through to create a new side entrance to meet a new route that had been built there (Pelikanova pot).


The Celje tourist board holds an event entitled "Pod zvezdami Celjanov" ("Under the stars of Celje") at Celje Castle in late summer every year, which features performances and representations of life in the Middle Ages. Music concerts also take place in the castle. Celje Castle is visited by approximately 60,000 people every year. An annual cultural entertainment event, Veronikini večeri, which is named after the character Veronika in the Slovenian opera Veronika Deseniška, also takes place in the castle. The evening features various concerts, theatre performances and other entertainment, and each year the organiser, in collaboration with the municipality of Celje, awards the Veronikina nagrada (prize) for poetry and the Zlatnik poezije (gold medal for poetry). The Veronikini večeri event has been taking place since 1996 and the Veronikina nagrada has equally been awarded since then. The Zlatnik poezije has been awarded since 2004.


The Cemetery of Confucius (Chinese: 孔林; pinyin: Kǒng lín; lit. 'Kong Forest [of gravestones]') is a cemetery of the Kong clan (the descendants of Confucius) in Confucius' hometown Qufu in Shandong province. Confucius himself and some of his disciples are buried there, as well as many thousands of his descendants.
Since 1994, the Cemetery of Confucius has been  part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu". The two other components of the site are the Temple of Confucius dedicated to the memory of the philosopher and the Kong Family Mansion, where his descendants lived. The three sites are collectively known in Qufu as San Kong (三孔), i.e. "The Three Confucian [sites]".


By the 2nd century AD, at least 50 of Confucius's descendants had been buried alongside him. In 1331 construction work began on the wall and gate of the cemetery. In total, the cemetery has undergone 13 renovations and extensions. Eventually, by the late 18th century, the perimeter wall reached a length of 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi), enclosing an area of 3.6 square kilometres (1.4 sq mi). In this space, the tombs of more than 100,000 descendants of Confucius, who have been buried there over a period of about 2,000 years, can be found. The oldest graves date back to the Zhou Dynasty, the most recent of which belong to descendants in the 76th and 78th generation.
The cemetery suffered serious damage in November 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, when it was visited and vandalized by a team of Red Guards from Beijing Normal University, led by Tan Houlan. The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng Kong Lingyi was removed from its grave and hung naked from a tree in front of the palace during the desecration of the cemetery in the Cultural Revolution.


The Cemetery of Confucius is located north of the historic walled city of Qufu, about two kilometers north of the Temple and Mansion of Confucius (which are in the south-central part of the walled city), and 1.5 km north of the Temple of Yan Hui, dedicated to the sage's favorite student (which is just inside the northern gates of the city wall). The main north-central axis of the walled city, Gulou Jie ("Drum Tower Avenue"), becomes Beiguan Jie ("North Gate Avenue") after passing through the north gate of the city wall. The avenue runs north for 1266 m as a wide boulevard decorated with the Wan gu chang chun (萬古長春) memorial arch and lined by cypresses and pine trees, finally arriving at the main (southern) gates of the cemetery.

The cemetery occupies183.33 hectares (1.8333 km²) and is surrounded by a perimeter wall 5,591 m long.
The oldest graves found in this location date back to the Zhou Dynasty. The original tomb erected here in memory of Confucius on the bank of the Sishui River had the shape of an axe. In addition, it had a brick platform for sacrifices. The present-day tomb is a cone-shaped hill.  Tombs for the descendants of Confucius and additional stelae to commemorate him were soon added around Confucius' tomb.
Since Confucius' descendants were conferred noble titles (Duke Yansheng) and were given imperial princesses as wives, many of the tombs in the cemetery show the status symbols of noblemen. Tombstones came into use during the Han Dynasty. Today, there are over three thousand stone tablets (mostly, tombstones)  dating from China's imperial period still standing in the cemetery. According to an official count, among them there are 22 tablets from the Song Dynasty, six from Jin, 45 from Yuan, 506 from Ming and 2626 from Qing  still standing in the cemetery. There are also 568 tablets from the Republic of China period and 50 modern (PRC-era) tablets, as well as 180 tablets whose age cannot be determined; this brings the total to 4003.
The Ming burials are primarily found in the western part of the cemetery, and those from the Qing era, in the eastern part. In the Ming section, particularly notable is a comparatively small area located about 1 km to the northwest of the Tomb of Confucius, where about a dozen of Dukes of Yansheng, from the 55th to the 64th generation, have been buried. The dukes' tomb sites in this area are arranged more or less chronologically in rows from the south to the north, and, within each row, from the east of the west. Each duke has his own spirit way, oriented from the south to the north, which typically includes (in the south-to-north order) the following sculptures: three pairs of animals (felines, sometimes winged; rams; horses); a memorial arch; a bixi with a stele; two guardian figures (a warrior on the west side of the path, and a civil official on the east side); and a stele in front of the small tumulus under which the duke is buried. A smaller subsidiary area with late Ming - early Qing spirit ways, is located about 500 m northeast of this main area.
More than 10,000 mature trees give the cemetery a forest-like appearance.


WikiWeb_Central Scherbakov Park of Culture and Leisure_2

The sculptural decoration of the park of the Soviet times was ideology-determined. White statue of Joseph Stalin was established in front of the bridge framed in acacia and dominated over the whole complex of the central park. Behind the back of Stalin statue there was a sculpture of athlete jumping into the water and the fountain with athletes' sculptures who were holding a vase in outstretched hands.  In the fountain bowl there was a sculpture of a Sportswoman with ball.  Stadium "Shakhtar" was decorated with monumental sculptures on the second floor. The sculptures of the postwar period were dismantled in 1970 during reconstruction of the central part of the park. During the renovation of the park in 2006–2008, a statue of the ancient girl with a jar was placed on the banking of the "First" pond. Also in 2008, in order to commemorate the City and the Miner's Day the "Good Angel of Peace" was established in the Park as international symbol of patronage. On the statue basis the names of famous Ukrainian patrons are carved: Nickolay Tereshchenko, Bogdan Khanenko, Vasiliy Tarnovskiy, Rinat Akhmetov and others. In 2008, 46 wooden sculptures depicting fantasy characters were established in the Park.


WikiWeb_Central Scherbakov Park of Culture and Leisure_4

Children's Railway named after Kirov was launched on November 24, 1936. The train consisted of two coupled together trams and the road line length was of about one kilometer. Due to the World War II outbreak, Kirov Children's Railway ceased to exist and was never rebuilt. The park also previously had a musical shell, a summer theater for 1000 spectators, "Green" summer cinema for 2,200 seats, a dance floor, a restaurant, parachute tower (existed until 1970), reading, chess and checkers pavilions. Currently 23 kinds of amusement rides are working in the park, the boat station offers boats and catamarans to hire. In 2009 Dolphinarium "Nemo" was open as a part of the national complex of cultural and recreational centres «Nemo». The (at the time abandoned) dolphinarium was destroyed in a fire in November 2016.


The Ahawath Chesed congregation was founded in 1846 on Ludlow Street in Manhattan by German-speaking Jews from Bohemia. It merged in 1898 with Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, which was founded by German Jews in 1839 on Albany Street. The combined congregation bought the lot at Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street and engaged Henry Fernbach, the country's first prominent Jewish architect, to design it.
The dramatic style of the building was the subject of much debate during the construction. Some felt its excess would inspire envy and stand in the way of assimilation. Construction was completed in 1872.
After a fire in 1886, the building was restored by Ely Jacques Kahn.
The building was restored in the original style after an accidental fire in August 1998, which occurred just as a major renovation was nearing completion. The fire destroyed the roof and its supports. During the fire, the firefighters' sensitivity for the building saved all but the central pane in the rose window that dominates the eastern (Lexington Avenue) wall. Marble plaques on the north wall of the foyer honor the firefighters of the 8th Battalion of the New York City Fire Department. The restoration of the building was supervised by Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer. Hardy restored some details to the interior that Ely Jacques Kahn had removed during the earlier restoration in 1886. The recent restoration was completed on September 9, 2001.
In March 2019, the mosque of the nearby Islamic Society of Mid-Manhattan was damaged by a fire in an adjoining restaurant. A rabbi of the synagogue invited the congregation of the mosque to hold services in the synagogue until its structure could be repaired.


Although the brownstone exterior is "the finest extant example of the Moorish Revival style in New York City", the plan of the interior is Gothic in nature. The exterior is dominated by two octagonal towers topped by globular domes, as well as by the rose window of geometric design. A small row of arches just below the cornice, at the roof line, adds to the richness of the facade. The north facade, on East 55th Street, features six stained-glass windows framed by Moorish arches. The interior is "stenciled with rich blues, earthy reds, ocher, and gilt – Moorish, but distinctly 19th century American."


Sensitive to the evolving interests and needs of the Reform Judaism community, Central Synagogue explores both traditional and alternative modes of prayer. In addition to daily morning minyan, Shabbat, holiday services, and celebrations of lifecycle events, the synagogue offers "Tot Shabbat" for children, and healing and community services.


Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager
Jay Furman (1942-2015), real estate developer
Jacob K. Javits (1904-1986), US Senator
Evelyn Lauder (1936-2011), Austrian American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist
Howard Michaels (1955-2018), real estate developer
Neri Oxman, designer and professor
Lewis Rudin (1927-2001), real estate investor and developer
Stephen Susman (1941-2020), attorney
Jonathan Tisch, CEO of Loews Hotels and co-owner of the New York Giants
Laurence A. Tisch (1923-2003), businessman, Wall Street investor and billionaire
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Cerro Tuzgle is a dormant stratovolcano in the Susques Department of Jujuy Province in northwestern Argentina. Tuzgle is a prominent volcano of the back-arc of the Andes and lies about 280 kilometres (170 mi) east of the main volcanic arc. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it is 5,486 metres (17,999 ft) high above sea level and grew during different stages over a caldera and lava domes. Some major lava flows emanate from the summit crater, and one confirmed and one possible flank collapse unit as well as an ignimbrite sheet are associated with this volcano.
The first volcanic activity of Tuzgle occurred 650,000 years ago and formed the Tuzgle Ignimbrite. Subsequently, lava domes were erupted and several lava flows; scientists have proposed two different schemes of naming the units. The latest lava flows are dated at 300,000 years ago and volcanic activity may have continued into the Holocene. Several thermal springs are associated with the volcano, and some have been investigated for possible geothermal energy production. Sulfur was formerly mined on the mountain.


Cerro Tuzgle is a volcano near the eastern border of the Argentina Puna. Politically, it is part of the Susques Department of the Jujuy Province. San Antonio de Los Cobres lies 45 km (28 miles) from Cerro Tuzgle and Susques 75 km (47 miles), while the cities of Salta and San Salvador de Jujuy are 280 km (170 miles) and 170 km (110 miles) away, respectively. A locality called "Sey" lies northwest of Cerro Tuzgle. The volcano is visible from Provincial Route 74. Its name, which is also rendered as Tujle, Tugle or Tugler, comes from the Kunza language; it means "knoll" and refers to the shape of the volcano.
Cerro Tuzgle is a simple volcanic cone and is the largest in the back-arc region of the Andes. It is a well-preserved stratovolcano that rises 1.2 km (0.75 miles) from a surrounding terrain at c. 3.7 km (2.3 miles) elevation to a summit at 5,486 metres (17,999 ft) elevation. A 0.5-square-kilometre (0.19 sq mi) platform lies at the summit of the volcano. The mountain is occasionally snow-covered and frost weathering has produced patterned ground and blockfields. In 1926 it was reported that a crater lake lies on the summit.
Three east-west trending fissure vents in the summit area are the source of dark lava flows that flowed southward and southwestward, and are flanked by 1–2-metre (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) high scoria ridges. The lava flows that make up the volcanic cone are blocky, rich in crystals and have variable appearances. Numerous young-looking lava flows descend the slopes of Cerro Tuzgle. A well-preserved lava flow descends the mountain and is visible on its southern flank. Older flows reached distances of 9 km (5.6 miles) from the volcano. A 1.25 km (0.78 miles) long scarp runs across the northwestern flank of Cerro Tuzgle and separates two units of lava flows; it probably formed through a localized collapse of the volcanic edifice in this sector. A depression in the southern flank of the volcano may also be evidence of a collapse in that direction. A parasitic vent is located on the western foot of the volcano.
There are abandoned sulfur mines on Cerro Tuzgle, which are visible from its south-southwestern flank; these include Mina Betty on the northwestern flank between 5,000–5,350 metres (16,400–17,550 ft) elevation where in 1939 seven sulfur outcrops were reported. A road transitable by trucks was constructed at that time to reach the summit area.
The volcano rises in a north-tilted, 18 km × 10 km (11.2 by 6.2 miles) north-south trending tectonic depression, which is delimited by normal faults and two horsts north and south of Cerro Tuzgle. The region is endorheic and drainages ultimately end in salt pans. The Quebrada Aguas Calientes passes west and Quebrada de Charcos east of the volcano; the latter becomes Quebrada Los Charcos north of the volcano and converges with Quebrada Aguas Calientes. Drainage around the volcano is focused by surrounding ridges into a watershed that drains northward, and contains permanent rivers fed by springs at the bottom of valleys. Carbonate deposits and thermophilic algae have been reported from the Quebrada Aguas Calientes. Peatland-lake complexes occur southeast of Cerro Tuzgle.


Cerro Tuzgle is part of the back-arc of the Andean Central Volcanic Zone, being about 275 km (171 miles) east of the main volcanic arc, and its largest Quaternary member. Other volcanic cones in the area are San Jerónimo volcano and Negro de Chorrillos, which erupted 780,000±100,000 and 200,000±150,000 years ago, respectively, Tocomar, which erupted 1.5–0.5 million years ago, and Aguas Calientes caldera. All these volcanoes are located south of Cerro Tuzgle.
Extensive volcanic rocks of Miocene to Pliocene age occur in the area, which were erupted by volcanoes such as Aguas Calientes caldera and Cerro Queva. Older rocks belong to the Faja Eruptiva geologic formation of Ordovician age. The total thickness of the crust reaches 55–60 km (34–37 miles). The basement is formed by Cambrian and Precambrian formations of metamorphic character, such as the Puncoviscana Formation. A large tectonic lineament, the Calama-Olacapato-El Toro lineament, intersects the Andes at Cerro Tuzgle. It reaches from the forearc in Chile across the mountain range into the foreland of the Andes in Argentina, and it separates the northern from the southern Puna. The distribution and history of volcanic activity differs between these two regions. Other similar faults cut across the Andes. The Calama-Olacapato-El Toro lineament is a strike-slip fault that consists of several separate faults, some of which show evidence of Quaternary activity and could produce earthquakes. Within the Andes proper, this activity mainly occurs in the form of normal faulting; only south of Cerro Tuzgle is there a segment with strike-slip faulting. Movement along most of these faults appears to clamp the magma chamber and magma conduits at Cerro Tuzgle, thus impeding volcanic activity there.
Gravimetric and magnetotelluric surveys have identified a partially molten magma chamber between 8–22 km (5.0–13.7 miles) depth, which also contains saline fluids. Seismic tomography has identified zones with anomalously low seismic velocity which descend from Cerro Tuzgle to 200 km (120 miles) depth in the downgoing slab.


Cerro Tuzgle has mainly erupted andesite and dacite, which constitute a crystal- and potassium-rich calc-alkaline suite with seriate flux and porphyritic textures. The rocks contain large feldspar and quartz phenocrysts and small phenocrysts of amphibole, clinopyroxene, olivine, orthopyroxene and plagioclase. Xenoliths and xenocrysts are also found and biotite, sanidine and zircon have been reported. At Aguas Calientes, sinters consisting of boronatro-calcite, chalcedony and opal occur. A cesium-rich pharmacosiderite-like mineral has been found at a hot spring. Different rock units have different phenocryst components and trace element compositions. The rocks of Cerro Tuzgle are the most diverse volcanic rocks in the back-arc of the Central Andes.
Magma mixing processes involving fractionating mafic magmas and crystallization have been invoked to explain the origin of Cerro Tuzgle's magmas. The parent magmas originated in the mantle and the crust, with the crustal parts joining the mantle-derived magmas in the deep crust. These crustal components originally came from the upper crust and reached the lower crust during tectonic processes. At this stage crystal fractionation also took place. The ascending magmas then accumulated in the crust and either erupted or were assimilated by ascending mafic magmas.


The climate is cold, owing to Cerro Tuzgle's high elevation, and the diurnal temperature range reaches 36 °C (65 °F). Winds blow mainly from the west and reach 2–20 metres per second (7.2–72.0 km/h). During winter, insolation is high, cloud cover and precipitation are low and strong winds blow through the area. According to 1939 reports, thunderstorms and snowfall are common at Cerro Tuzgle.
The region is arid, with less than 100 millimetres (3.9 in) annual precipitation as it is part of the Andean Arid Diagonal where the Eastern Cordillera prevents moisture-bearing winds from reaching the Puna. The little precipitation that falls originates in the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon and arrives during the summer monsoon; additionally cold fronts come from the westerlies over the Pacific Ocean. The amount of precipitation is influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, where El Niño is associated with drought and La Niña with wetter weather.
Vegetation is sparse and consists of tola, Vachellia caven and yareta. Animals that live in the area include chinchillas, condors, coots, Darwin's rheas, ducks, eagles, Galea species, guanacos, llamas, suris and vicuñas. Trichomycterus fish have been found in creeks around the volcano. Peatlands are dominated by the plants Oxychloe andina, Distichia muscoides and Zameioscirpus muticus, with other cyperaceae being subordinate. Annual precipitation there amounts to 135 millimetres (5.3 in), almost all of which falls during October to March. Peatlands close to Cerro Tuzgle have been used to reconstruct the local climate during the Holocene. Reconstructed past precipitation levels show alternations between wetter and drier periods during the last 1,800 years, with the last 130 years being relatively dry.


Cerro Tuzgle was active during the Pleistocene and its most recent eruption may have followed a period of inactivity. With the exception of one flow, most are partially degraded and buried by wind-transported material. Volcanic activity took place in multiple stages:
First, a rhyodacitic ignimbrite with a volume of 0.5 cubic kilometres (0.12 cu mi) was erupted and flowed north over the pre-existing terrain, forming a 80-metre (260 ft) thick plateau. This homogeneous ignimbrite has a yellow-white colour; the middle and upper parts of the ignimbrite contain pumice and the lower part contains lithic fragments. It has been dated to be 650,000±180,000 years old and was presumably erupted from a small caldera now buried under Cerro Tuzgle.
Lava domes of dacitic composition with a total volume of about 3.5 cubic kilometres (0.84 cu mi) were emplaced on the rim of the caldera, forming the "Old Complex". The "Old Complex" was erupted about 300,000 years ago. The domes crop out north, south and southeast from the volcano and are reddish-brown to light grey in colour. The lava flows are homogeneous and feature flow structures and laminations.
Two schemes for classifying the subsequent activity have been proposed, the first:
Andesitic lava flows partially buried the lava domes, forming the "Pre-platform unit". It has been dated to be 300,000±1,000,000 years old.
Mafic andesite lava filled the caldera. It constitutes the prominent "Platform unit".
Northwest-southeast directed faulting dissected the volcano, and the "Postplatform" and "Young Flow" units were erupted along these faults. A latite lava flow has yielded ages of 100,000±100,000 and 100,000±300,000 years old. The "Young Flow" unit is considered to be of Holocene or Pleistocene-Holocene age, and is represented by multiple young lava flows.
A substantially different reconstruction was provided by Gianluca Norini et al in 2014:
Six units of massive, up to 30-metre (100 ft) thick, dark grey to reddish-brown coloured lava flows form the San Antonio Synthem. This unit crops out on the southern and northwestern side of the volcano, which at this stage already had a major topographic expression. A fan formed by volcanic debris attributed to this stage covers an area of 12 square kilometres (4.6 sq mi) north of Cerro Tuzgle; it probably formed during a large collapse of the volcanic edifice that removed about 0.5 cubic kilometres (0.12 cu mi) of its volume and generated the scarp on the northwestern flank.
After an episode of erosion, the Azufre Synthem was emplaced around the summit. It consists of massive, up to 15 metres (49 ft) thick, dark grey to reddish-brown coloured lava flows. These lava flows are sometimes hydrothermally altered; the sulfur deposits on the volcano are linked to this synthem.
Faulting and hydrothermal alteration took place after the emplacement of the Azufre Synthem. 13 units of lava flows form the Tuzgle Synthem. These aa and block lava flows reach thicknesses of 30 metres (100 ft) and are the last stage of volcanic activity at Cerro Tuzgle. A stage of solfataric activity followed the last eruptions and deposited sulfur.
The "Old Complex" has a volume of 3.5 cubic kilometres (0.84 cu mi), the subsequent units only reach 0.5 cubic kilometres (0.12 cu mi). There is a trend from voluminous ignimbrites and dacites, formed through melting of the crust at high temperatures, early in the volcano's history to less voluminous mafic magmas, which erupted through brittle faults. Tephra deposits east of San Antonio de los Cobres may have originated at Tuzgle.
The volcano is presently inactive. The Argentina geological service SEGEMAR considers Cerro Tuzgle among the more dangerous volcanoes in Argentina, ranking it 11th out of 38. While the region is thinly inhabited, the occurrence of a sector collapse at Cerro Tuzgle implies that mining and geothermal energy exploitation efforts in the area could be imperiled by similar future events.


Springs occur at Agua Caliente de Tuzgle 6 km (3.7 miles) northwest from the summit, and at Mina Betty (24°06′52.1″S 66°27′48.2″W) 6 km (3.7 miles) south-southeast. Both emit alkaline waters containing chloride at temperatures of 40–56 °C (104–133 °F) and 21 °C (70 °F), respectively. Agua Caliente de Tuzgle also emits gases and has produced sinter deposits. The Antuco hot springs southwest from Cerro Tuzgle may receive their heat from Cerro Tuzgle. These springs and other springs in the Tuzgle area are recharged by precipitation on surrounding ridges; large-scale fracture systems in the ground control its flow and water emerges in proximity to deeply incised valleys which provide the path for water to reach the surface. Temperatures at depth exceed 200 °C (392 °F).


Hot springs such as Pompeya and Tocomar might be used for tourism, as they are located close to the main roads of the area. The volcano might also be a suitable target for mountaineering; its ascent poses little difficulty to trained mountaineers. Inca ceremonial sites in the form of a raised platform and structures formed by piled-up rocks on the summit region were reported by María Constanza Ceruti 1999. Neighbouring volcanoes as well as the Nevado del Chañi ridge are visible from the summit.
The first findings of sulfur occurred in 1924, but they were not immediately exploited. A mining concession for Mina Betty was issued in 1933, while approval for two other proposed mines in the summit area was still pending in 1939. The machinery required for sulfur processing was installed south-southeast of the volcano and the site bore the name "Ojo del Tuzgle"; the sulfur was transported there either by mules or by trucks. A spring there was used as a water source for mining activities. During parts of the year bad weather conditions rendered mining impossible.
In the 1970s and 1980s numerous companies prospected the area for geothermal power generation. They established the presence of two superposed heat reservoirs, one at 50–300 metres (160–980 ft) depth in an older ignimbrite and another at 2 km (1.2 miles) depth in Ordovician-age rocks. Initially they were interpreted as a joint Tocomar-Tuzgle geothermal system before these were identified as separate systems in 2008 and 2016. A major power line between Argentina and Chile runs across the area, and local mines along with the towns of Olacapato and San Antonio de Los Cobres could provide a market for geothermal power. Private companies are active in conducting feasibility studies. A potential yield of 28–34 megawatts of electrical power has been estimated, but as of 2020 no progress towards exploiting these resources has been made. The geothermal vents could also be used to extract minerals or for spas. Concerns have been raised that the sensitive ecosystems might be threatened by human activity.


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Count Giacomo Arcucci, a secretary to Joan I of Naples, established the charterhouse in 1371. He later became a monk himself in 1386.
In 1553 the monastery was restored and fortified and a tower was erected which collapsed in the 18th century.
There was often conflict between the islanders and the monks, who owned land as well as grazing and hunting rights. During the 1656 plague in Capri, the monks sealed themselves off, whereupon the islanders threw their corpses over the wall of the monastery in retribution.
Since 1974 the charterhouse houses the Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach museum among others and is used for cultural events. A high school is also on the premises.


The Château de Billy is a ruined 13th – 14th century castle in the town of Billy in the Allier département of France.


For the first several centuries of its existence, the Château de Billy was the property of its builders, the Bourbons. The fortified town of Billy and the province of Bourbonnais were part of the domain of the lordship of the Bourbons. Both the castle and the lordship remained powerful until the French revolution (1789).


The main fortification has an ovoid layout with a hexagonal watchtower which dominates the houses of the town and the medieval streets that curve around the walls of the castle. An imposing châtelet guards the entrance. The southern curtain wall has a walkway that offers a splendid panorama of the Allier valley.
The castle is privately owned and open to the public. It has been listed since 1921 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.


The Château de Blain  or Château de la Groulais, is a mediaeval castle constructed in the 13th century and heavily remodelled in the 16th, located in the commune of Blain in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. It formed part of the frontier defences of Brittany along with the towns and castles of Vitré, Fougères, Châteaubriant, Ancenis and Clisson.


The castle stands on the side of the Nantes-Brest canal. It has 12 towers and covers an area of 4 hectares.


The first castle was constructed on the orders of Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, around 1108. The fortress passed by marriage to the Clisson family in 1225. Following Olivier I of Clisson's revolt against the Duke, the castle was razed in 1260.
Olivier I's son, Olivier II obtained permission from the Duke to rebuild the castle. The Clissons progressively enlarged the castle during the 14th century.
In 1407, the castle became the property of the House of Rohan. Louis, Duke of Rohan, is buried here.
During the French Wars of Religion, the castle was besieged and set on fire in 1591 during fighting between the Duke of Mercœur and Jean de Montauban, the knight De Goust. It was restored by Catherine de Parthenay, who installed herself there with her children. In 1628, Henri II, Duke of Rohan, having become the leader of the Protestant princes, Cardinal Richelieu ordered that the castle be dismantled resulting in the loss of its military role.
The castle suffered further serious damage during the French Revolution. It was pillaged and burnt, along with the Rohan family archives. It served as a barracks and later as a prison.
It passed through the hands of several proprietors, including Marie Bonaparte in 1918. These owners remodelled the north wing (known as the Logis du Roy) and the Mill Tower (la tour du moulin).


The South West Tower and the Drawbridge Tower, along with the buildings on either side, form the entrance to the castle. Along with the Constable's Tower (tour du Connétable), the two towers in the south east and the monumental entrance on the south façade of the logis du Roi, they date from before the 17th century. Together with the remains of the towers and the fortifications linking them, they have been classified as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
The north wing of the logis du Roi was remodelled in the 19th century.


The castle houses a fresco centre and an ancient printshop. It has been listed since 1977 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.


The Château de Calberte, or Château Saint-Pierre is a castle in the commune of Saint-Germain-de-Calberte in the Lozère département of France.


The castle is situated in the heart of the Cévennes, in the former province of Gévaudan. It stands at an altitude of 410 metres (1,350 ft) on a rock outcrop on the banks of the Gardon. It is 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) below the present village at the bottom of the valley.


The castle is composed of several buildings.
The square keep, 11 metres (36 ft) high, dates from the 12th century. An older rectangular dwelling is attached to it. It has two levels, and in the 14th century were added merlons, battlements and a bretèche above its door. Four outbuildings, a round tower and a castral chapel complete it. A first small enceinte isolates the buildings of the castle from those of the medieval village located below on the north side. This village is itself surrounded by a second enceinte which encloses everything. The main access is through the northeast gate
The adjoining village included about fifteen houses (or a hundred inhabitants). The houses that have been excavated all had two levels (ground floor for animals, first floor for residents). They had double-pitched roofs covered with slate. The streets had a drainage system for runoff water. The excavations carried out there were able to determine that they essentially housed a metallurgical activity (slag, hearths, disposal).


The construction of the castle would have started in the 11th century, but it took its current dimensions in the 12th century. It was then a possession of the lords of Anduze, who held the Baronnies of Portes. Having taken the side of their suzerain, the Count of Toulouse, their property including this castle was confiscated by the King of France around 1229, at the end of the Albigensian Crusade. But the Bishop of Mende and the king disputed for a long time the possession of the region. A first agreement in 1265 gave it to the king. In 1307, after 36 years of legal processes between them, the act of paréage (treaty) gave it to him definitively. The castle remained the direct property of the Barons de Portes until 1320 when Raymond de Cadoène bought it from them and paid tribute to them for it. The castle nevertheless underwent the vicissitudes of the lordship of Portes.
In 1322, it was sold by Guillaume de Randon to the Budos family. Being originally from Guyenne, they therefore generally took the side of the English during the Hundred Years' War. This earned them the confiscation of the barony by the king in 1340. He sold it in 1344 to William II Roger de Beaufort. The Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 cancelled the confiscations of 1340. The lordship of Porte was then contested by two legitimate lords. A 24-year long private war pitted the Budos and Guillaume III Roger de Beaufort over the possession. It ended in March 1384 when the parliament voted in favour of Thibaud de Budos.
Like most castles in the region, Calberte probably suffered the threat of mercenary free companies during the Hundred Years' War.
The castle was probably abandoned at the beginning of the 15th century although the reasons are unknown, and it gradually sank into oblivion. The abandonment of the village which was attached to the castle was earlier: between the end of the 13th century and the middle of the 14th century. Its ruins served as a refuge during the French Wars of Religion (late 16th century) as well as during the Camisard War. In the 20th century, under the name of Château Saint-Pierre, the Calbertois designated the remains of the castle, now largely ruined.


It became the property of the Darnas family in 1964. They decided to restore it themselves little by little, over the school holidays, despite the magnitude of the task, which was very difficult to access (transportation of materials on human backs) and general scepticism. The work spread over almost 40 years (the labour and the work of a lifetime), to the great astonishment of the Calbertois.
The difficulty of access to the castle (only by a path) and its isolation had saved it from being used as a quarry like many abandoned buildings, and the basic material (shale stones) remained on site. The restoration of each building was preceded by an exhaustive study by M. Darnas (research of dimensions, of all traces to find its structure, its form, its details such as battlements). The reconstruction of the walls from the fallen stones made it possible to expose the base of the buildings thus preserved. Only the sections of walls remaining from the round tower, too damaged, had to be torn down. The only concession to modernity was that cement replaced lime and mortar gave way to a simple jointing.
Archaeological digs, carried out by the medievalist Isabelle Darnas (the daughter of the family), made it possible to understand the site's evolution and to gain a better understanding of what it was. These studies and the fact that its structures have been very little altered over the centuries allowed a very faithful restoration. Only very careful observation can distinguish the original parts and those reconstructed.
Today, the castle is almost entirely restored. Visitor fees in summer make it possible to finance the clearing work.
In summer, an exhibition retraces the restoration work as well as the results of the excavations. Its owner, a goldsmith, also presents his work there.


The Château de Falaise is a castle from the 12th-13th century, located in the south of the commune of Falaise ("cliff" in French) in the département of Calvados, in the region of Normandy, France. William the Conqueror, the son of Duke Robert of Normandy, was born at an earlier castle on the same site in about 1028. William went on to conquer England and become king, and possession of the castle descended through his heirs until the 13th century, when it was captured by King Philip II of France.  Because of his association to the location (though not the existing physical structure) it is also known as Château Guillaume le Conquérant or William the Conqueror's Castle.
Possession of the castle changed hands several times during the Hundred Years' War. The castle was abandoned during the 17th century. Since 1840 it has been protected as a monument historique.


On the death of Richard II, Duke of Normandy, in August 1026 his son (also called Richard) succeeded to the duchy. The inheritance however was disputed by Richard III's younger brother, Robert. Not content with his inheritance of the town of Exmes and its surrounding area, Robert rebelled and took up arms against his brother, and he captured the castle of Falaise. Richard then besieged the castle and forced Robert to submit to him. However, when Richard died from unknown causes in 1027, Robert became Duke of Normandy. Robert fathered an illegitimate son by a woman named Herleva, who was from the town of Falaise and the daughter of a chamberlain. The child, William, was born in about 1028.
The castle (12th–13th century), which overlooks the town from a high crag, was formerly the seat of the Dukes of Normandy. The construction was started on the site of an earlier castle in 1123 by Henry I of England, with the "large keep" (grand donjon). Later was added the "small keep" (petit donjon).
The tower built in the first quarter of the 12th century contained a hall, chapel, and a room for the lord, but no small rooms for a complicated household arrangement; in this way, it was similar to towers at Corfe, Norwich, and Portchester, all in England.
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, was King John of England's teenage nephew, and a rival claimant to the throne of England. With the support of King Philip II of France, Arthur embarked on a campaign in Normandy against John in 1202, and Poitou revolted in support of Arthur. The Duke of Brittany besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in  the Château de Mirebeau. John marched on Mirebeau, taking Arthur by surprise and capturing him on 1 August. From there Arthur was conveyed to Falaise where he was imprisoned in the castle's keep. According to contemporaneous chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall, John ordered two of his servants to mutilate the duke. Hugh de Burgh was in charge of guarding Arthur and refused to let him be mutilated, but to demoralise Arthur's supporters was to announce his death. The circumstances of Arthur's death are unclear, though he probably died in 1203.
In about 1207, after having conquered Normandy, Philip II Augustus ordered the building of a new cylindrical keep. It was later named the Talbot Tower (Tour Talbot) after the English commander responsible for its repair during the Hundred Years' War. It is a tall round tower, a similar design to the towers built at Gisors and the medieval Louvre.
Possession of the castle changed hands several times during the Hundred Years' War. The castle was deserted during the 17th century.
Since 1840, Château de Falaise has been recognised as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. A programme of restoration was carried out between 1870 and 1874. The castle suffered due to bombardment during the Second World War in the battle for the Falaise pocket in 1944, but the three keeps were unscathed.


The Château de Florac is a castle, originally built in the 13th century and then rebuilt in the 17th century, located in the French town of Florac, in Lozère, in south-central France.
It originally belonged to the Barony of Anduze and passed through a number of feudal families. The castle was entirely rebuilt in 1652 after the Wars of Religion. During the French Revolution, the castle was turned into a "salt loft" for storing salt. It was then used as a prison in the 19th century.


Since 1976, the castle has been the headquarters of the Cévennes National Park, who restored it.
The ground and first floors house an exhibition on the National Park (landscape, flora, fauna and activities connected with the park). The information centre has details of hiking, guided tours, accommodation and écomusées (open-air museums) in the park.


The Château de Fontaine (Dutch: Kasteel van Fontaine) is a chateau in the municipality of Onhaye, Wallonia in the Belgian province of Namur.
It is located south of the village of Anthée.
The chateau was built near the intersection of the main road from Namur to Luxembourg and the road from Dinant to Liège.
The chateau lies to the south of the village of Anthée in a valley surrounded by woods.
The chateau replaced a medieval castle, of which there are remains in the north east corner.
It was the seat of the lordship of Fontaine,
which included Anthée, Morville and Miavoye, spanning the counties of Namur and Agimont in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
The chateau is built of limestone, and is U-shaped, open to the south, with towers on each corner.
There is a farm to the east with the same plan, with the open side facing the chateau.
The two-story chateau was probably built in stages in the 16th century.
The other buildings were erected in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The chateau was renovated in neo-traditional style between 1907 and 1909.
The chateau was given a uniform appearance, with the towers raised and the present windows and other decorations added.


The Château de Frœnsbourg is a ruined French castle north west of the town of Lembach, within the Bas-Rhin département. It has been listed since 1898 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. It is partially a troglodyte structure (built into the side of a cliff or mountain, using caves as connecting halls), with two main buildings making up the rest of the structure.


The castle was indirectly mentioned in 1235 (according to A. Thon). It is attested in 1269, in an account of the brothers "of Frundsperg". Until the 1340s, the castle would have belonged exclusively to the Froensbourgs, who had the same armorial bearings as the Fleckensteins (of which family they were probably a branch).
A little before the middle of the 14th century, the castle was divided between the lords of Froensbourg (who kept half of it), Loewenstein and Sickingen. It was besieged and ruined, in 1349, because of the banditry of Reinhard von Sickingen, but was certainly restored after 1358, the date when the castle was offered as a stronghold to the Palatine Count. The dwelling tower on the southern rock, known as the small castle, was owned towards the end of the 15th century by Fleckenstein, who had it restored. Its main door is dated 1481.
The big castle occupied the whole of the northern rock. At the higher level, on the side of a likely attack, is a keep with living quarters towards the south. On the middle and lower floors were located the common buildings and dependences made of wood - traces of anchorings remain in the rocks - and troglodytic rooms. The lower courtyard stood in the west and there was a ditch to the north. There are several staircases cut into the rock. The castle was destroyed by the French in 1677 but was probably already abandoned at that time.


The castle stands on an isolated sandstone spur oriented north-south, separated from the mountain by a large ditch. The spur, split in two, comprises a longer and higher northern rock, connected at mid-level by a modern footbridge to the southern rock. At the base of the northern rock, on the north-western side, a low room is cut into the rock and joined by a narrow bay (of unspecified date) to a tiny cylindrical room leading to the middle level. This could correspond to an old well-cistern. Above the door is evidence of the anchoring for a drawbridge. Further south, a western projection with access door is located, a winding staircase cut in the sandstone, traces of buildings with a stable, a well in a corner and vestiges of staircases in the rock. At the middle level, to the east (reached via a modern staircase and a largely original door) are two rooms cut in the rock; to the north is the upper part of the old well-cistern. Towards the south, a square cistern close to the modern footbridge gives access to the small southern rock. This is entirely occupied by the remains of the dwelling tower whose Gothic arch doorway remains, dated 1481.
The remains of the northern keep and the lodgings towards the south, located on the higher terrace of the northern rock, are inaccessible.


Château de Hunebourg (German: Hüneburg or Hünenburg) lies to the west of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne in the French département of Bas-Rhin on a 425-metre-high sandstone rock outcrop. It is accessible from the valley of the Zinsel du Nord. The original castle was built in the 12th-13th century, but very little remains from this period. The castle was reconstructed in a neo-romanesque style in the 1930s. It is a listed historical monument since 2007.


The ruins were seized during the French Revolution and sold "for the good of the nation" (Biens nationaux).  It was purchased in 1809 by Napoleonic general, Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, who henceforth named himself the Count of Hunebourg (Comte de Hunebourg). He had the medieval bergfried torn down to make way for material for new building work. However, he spent very little time at Hunebourg. The estate was turned into a park with a hunting lodge. After the death of the general in 1818, the Hunebourg was sold by his heirs and was owned by the Feyler family of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne from 1823 to 1932.


In 1932, an Alsatian autonomist and politician, Friedrich Spieser, purchased the castle ruins and in 1934 had new residential buildings and a bergfried built in the Neo-Romanesque style by Karl Erich Loebell, an architect of the Stuttgart School and student of Paul Schmitthenner. In his autobiographical account, A Thousand Bridges (Tausend Brücken) Spieser described the principles of his reconstruction: a commitment to the history, connectedness with nature, simplicity and objectivity in its features, authenticity of materials, orientation to German building tradition. A "hiking hostel" (youth hostel) was later integrated into the castle. The new bergfried was built on the small rock outcrop of the old inner ward, separated from the plateau of the outer ward by a ravine bridged by an arch. Unlike its medieval precursor it was not placed in the forward position of the outer ward, but moved to the other end of the rock. A "Peace Tower" (Friedens-Turm) was dedicated to "the most unknown soldiers of 1914-18 World War / the fallen of Alsace-Lorraine / and dead fighters of the region". Meetings of Alsatian autonomist clubs and folk song and folk dance events organized by Spieser took place at the castle. The Francophile press of Alsace attacked the reconstructed castle in the political conflicts of the pre-war period as a "bulwark of Germanness".
At the start of the Second World War the castle was commandeered by the French authorities. After the occupation of Alsace by German troops, Spieser returned to the castle. At the request of Baden's Gauleiter and Chief of the Civil Administration in Alsace Robert Wagner, the body of the autonomist politician, Karl Roos, who had been executed in 1940, was transferred from Nancy and interred at the castle on 19 June 1941 with military honours. In the next few years the Hüneburg was to become an obligatory pilgrimage for students of German-occupied Lorraine.
After the Liberation of France and the reconquest of the Alsace by Allied troops, the Roos' sarcophagus was thrown into the moat by French troops. Where the remains of Roos are now is unknown. The castle was retaken by French troops and repossessed. The Société mutualiste du personnel de l’Enregistrement bought the site and turned it into a holiday home for its members. Today the Hunenbourg houses an hotel.


Château de Kerjean is a 16th-century fortified chateau (manor house) located close to the town of Saint-Vougay, in the Finistère department of Brittany, France.
It was originally built for members of the Barbier family (later titled as Marquis de Kerjean) between the 1540s and 1590s. The chateau was damaged in the 1790s during the French Revolution, and fell into further disrepair during the 19th century.
The building was taken into state care in 1911 and restored in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Standing in a 20-hectare park, the house, park and some out-lying structures (including a large dovecote) are open to the public.


Finistère was a thriving agricultural area in the 16th century, and the Barbier family built a fortified house on their estate lands close to Saint-Vougay. The building followed contemporary fashions and included elements of Renaissance architecture of the house itself, with a slightly less common bastioned and casemated external defensive wall.
The manor house was the hub of an active agricultural estate for several centuries, before becoming somewhat neglected during the 17th century.
Following a marriage between the Barbier and Coatanscour families, the estate and house experienced some growth in the 18th century. However, during the French Revolution, the Marquise de Coatanscour was arrested, imprisoned and guillotined in Brest, and the estate and chateau forfeited to the republic.
Serving as a military garrison after the Revolution, during which time the building fell into significant disrepair, the house was sold to the Brilhac family in 1802. Several damaged sections of the house were further dismantled in this period – with lead and stone sold as building material – before the Forsanz-Coatgoureden family took control.
In 1911 the French state bought the chateau, classified the site as a historic monument, and from the 1980s to the early 2000s restored the house and surrounds.


The Château de la Petite-Pierre, Burg Lützelstein (German) is a castle in the commune of La Petite-Pierre (German: Lützelstein) in the Bas-Rhin département of France, in Alsace (German: Elsass). All the names of the place are related to "small stone" (Latin: parva petra), and come from Old Franconian Lítzelstäin, with the French name as a translation.
It is the headquarters of the Parc naturel régional des Vosges du Nord. It has been listed as monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since April 1922.


Originally there was a stronghold in the place, built by the family of Hugues IV of Nordgau (fr), Count of Egisheim.
Built at the end of the 12th century, the Château de la Petite-Pierre is recorded from 1212. Count Hugo, either the son or grandson of the powerful Count of Blieskastel (fr), is held as the constructor. The fief was recognised as the "County of Lützelstein", within the German Holy Roman Empire, approximately at the same time.
The counts have used the title Graf von Lützelstein, later also Comte de Petite-Pierre, meaning basically the same, also Comte de Lunéville (in Lorraine), which might be due to a confusion of transferral of power at some point.
A probable, incomplete, order of the early counts of Lützelstein, as precise documentation is not at hand:
Hugo I of Blieskastel (d.a. 1220), Count of Lützelstein or Lunéville (or both), second son of Folmar I (d.a. 1179), Count of Blieskastel with Clementia of Metz. His brother Folmar II, Count of Blieskastel was married to Jutta, daughter of Simon I, Count of Saarbrücken. Hugo married Kunigunde, daughter of Konrad, Count of Kyrburg and Mathilde of Bar, and had Hugo II.
Hugo II of Blieskastel, Count of Lützelstein (1208? - a. 1246). Married Judith (Joathe) of Lorraine, daughter of Philippe, son of Frederick I, Duke of Lorraine ("Ferry").
Hugo III, Count of Lützelstein (Perhaps also Lunéville) (d.a. 1280/99), married Elisabeth (d.a. 1271), daughter of Simon III, Count of Saarbrücken. Probably also Elisabeth of Vinstingen, a grandniece of Simon.
In 1223, due to a conflict with the Bishop of Strasbourg, the counts of Parva Petra were forced to yield it as a fief to the bishop as an episcopal stronghold, under the bishop's reign.
In 1403, Friedrich of Lutzelstein died as the last was the last male heir of the castle. His uncle Bourcard/Burkhard II of Lutzelstein, Bishop of Strasbourg (in office 1393 - 1394), was one of the claimants, as well as Friedrich's sister, married to Johann of Leiningen. Burkhard (of Friedrich?) divided the property letting Palatine count Robert III, Holy Roman Emperor a fourth and the rest to his daughters. Sons of Burkhard and of the Leiningen family ruled for some time in Lützelstein. However the Palatine count Frederick I (1425 - 1476) seized it all in 1452/62 as the new holders died without legitimate heirs. In 1566, it became the residence of George John I, Count Palatine of Veldenz, who carried out major works. The French Army occupied the castle in 1677; in 1681 the county was joined with in France. Vauban was charged with improving the fortifications. In 1870 that the fortifications were removed.
Since 1977, the building has housed the administrative services of the Parc naturel régional (Natural Regional Park) of Vosges du Nord. In the multi-media exhibition there, a room is specifically devoted to the history of the castle with, in particular, a superb model of Staedtel, the fortified old town, according to plans of 1771, and an impressive sight of the castle's ancient cistern.
The fortified town, with the Saint-Louis chapel, the 15th-century church choir and the bastion tower protecting the cisterns, is closely linked to the castle.


The castle is located at the end of a crest, separated from the old town by an artificial ditch dating from the beginning of the 13th century. The pentagonal keep was destroyed in the 19th century. The residence has been greatly altered but in its cellar the filtering cistern dates from the 14th century. On the southern façade are Romanesque windows. The well with Renaissance decoration, the main door with pilasters and the staircase turret date from the 16th century.
The polygonal construction exhibits Gothic ornamentation, in particular hooked capitals.


The Château de Larnagol or Castrum de Larnagol is a castle in the commune of Larnagol in the Lot département of France.
Remnants of the castle date back to the 13th century. The present appearance of the buildings is the result of a reconstruction following an important campaign of decoration in the 18th century. It was further enriched at the start of the 20th century following its acquisition by Raymond Subes, a decorative artist who specialised in ironwork.
The site is owned by the commune. It has been listed since 2001 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.


The Château de Montrésor is a medieval castle with a Renaissance mansion built in the grounds, located in the French village of Montrésor in the département of  Indre-et-Loire.
The Château de Montrésor has been listed since 1996 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture and is a popular visitor attraction.


Around 1005, Fulk Nerra, count of Anjou, chose a rocky overhang dominating the valley of the Indrois as the site to have a powerful fortress built by his captain Roger le Petit Diable ("Little Devil"). Montrésor had one of the first keeps built out of stone, similar to that at Loches, and two circular walls, of which today only the west wall remains. In the 12th century, Montrésor fell into the hands of Henry II of England and the imposing towers at the entrance were built, as well as a part of the northern curtain wall. In 1188, King Philip Augustus of France retook Montrésor from the English. André de Chauvigny, returning from the Third Crusade with Richard the Lionheart, became the new lord of Montrésor, before having to cede the castle for almost two centuries to the Palluau family.
Demolished in 1203, the castle was rebuilt in 1393 for Jean IV de Bueil by Jean Binet, who put up the enclosure wall, the gatehouse and the existing outbuildings.


During the 17th and 18th centuries, other leading families - such as the Bourdeilles and the Beauvilliers - lived in the castle. The French Revolution marked the beginning of its decline. Around 1845, Count Louis-Jouffroy de Gonsans demolished the west wing of the Renaissance logis as well as the castle chapel.
In 1849, the mother of a Polish exiled magnate, Count Xavier Branicki, bought the dilapidated estate as a project for her son. He was a friend of emperor Napoleon III and, when he arrived, he gave new life to the village of Montrésor; he built new schools for girls and boys, restored the water supply, repaired the hospital and built a chapel in the grave-yard. Branicki had the castle completely restored. Over twenty years, he put on new roofs and equipped the interior with rich furnishings and art. He made his home into an archive and repository of polonica, Polish historical artefacts, which has now become a notable collection and museum. The house and its estate were the setting for hunting in the surrounding forests and sumptuous feasts with prince Napoléon, a cousin of the Emperor. Branicki had no legitimate heirs and the property passed to his younger brother, Konstanty. That line also came to an end. The castle is now owned by distant relatives by marriage and descendants of Mikolaj Rej.