What are /r/castles' favorite Products & Services?

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From Wikimapia:

>Pratapgarh Fort is sitauted on top of the hill at Pratapgarh village. It is about 58 km from Jaipur and 56 kms from Alwar. It is a masive construction made by the rulers of Alwar state. It is in good condition. There are high ramparts and bastons. It looks like the crown of town. It is located on the border of erstwhile Alwar Principality. It was in response of Maid and Dhola forts of Jaipur state. It was a important defence establishment of Alwar state to monitor/prevent the neighbouring state defence activities. There is a big water reservior in the complex to store water for the solldiers. There are old cannons and a temple is also existed. The fort appears with the security of the town by a strong citadel. Massive fortification was made around the town to prevent the attacks by invaders. It has played an important defence role in erstwhile scenario. There are two major city gates in the wall to enter/exit. This fort has witnessed many historical events. It is pride of Pratapgarh and Nehrha locality. It is a boosting factor for tourism development in this area. This is an unique asset to the village. This is the morale duty of the locals and govt body to maintain and protect such type of monuments having historical value. In recent scenario, it will be the bright tourist feature of this area. According to the legends, it was established by Maharaja Pratap Singh of Alwar (Founder of Alwar state).

Here is the spot on Wikimapia:

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=27.250710&lon=76.164844&z=17&m=b

> Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise of long disuse, and the great door swung back.

> Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without a chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation.

> "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will!" He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said.

> "Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring!" The strength of the handshake was so much akin to that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was speaking. So to make sure, I said interrogatively, "Count Dracula?"

Great book, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). You can find the whole thing online here or listen to it here, both are free.

Apparently this is the second-oldest castle in Europe, though with extensive reconstruction and additions since it was first built in 968. Source.

Hello, I'm a bot! The movie you linked is called The Castle, here are some Trailers

Gawilghur (also Gawilgarh or Gawilgad) was a well-fortified mountain stronghold of the Maratha Empire north of the Deccan Plateau, in the vicinity of Melghat Tiger Reserve, Amravati District, Maharashtra. It was successfully assaulted by an Anglo-Indian force commanded by Arthur Wellesley on the 15 December 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. (from wikipedia entry)

You can see some of the photos in this album. I visited the fort in c. 2008, but due to lack of time could only see the outer part of the fort. Being on the edge of a tiger reserve, there are many sightings of wild animals in the fort. Locals tell of sigthing leopards during daylight and advise against venturing in the fort alone.

The fort has two parts separated by a valley. The pictures here are all from the outer part. The inner fort is separated by a strong gate. Inner fort was defensible even if the outer part fell. The large extent of the fort can be seen in the satellite image below.

Satellite view of Gavilgad Fort

Wikipedia article

Bing Extra-Large Image Search

One of my very favorite games.... was CASTLES 2 apart from being downright fun, seemed to have a number of castles that were built to resemble their real life counterparts.

> 47.025147,15.138821

I was going by a geocache hide that has the coordinates listed and indicate the cache was right next to the ruins.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCW4NN&title=alt-leonroth-lost-stones-of-styria-vii&guid=5d5ae232-9058-4f3a-ad16-c25fe9b9928f

Our two points are 1.6 miles apart. There are no geotagged photos in the area, and both spots are covered with tree growth.

Edit: Seems there are two castles nearby with the same name; one 'old' and one 'new'. Here is a different cache that is at the other site. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCW5GK_neu-leonroth-lost-stones-of-styria-viii?guid=3e3c7bed-a3ef-4dbd-b189-dc74fc3d95f1

This is part of the fortifications of the old city of Guérande, which I wouldn't think of as in the Loire Valley (well, take a look at this map, it's really not in the valley, although not too far from the Loire), but more as a Breton city, like, for example, saint malo which is definitely not in the Loire Valley.

Castles from the Loire Valley are more situated starting from Angers or so and then up the river towards Saumur.

• Take a lot of pictures: generally the more the better
• Put them into PhotoScan and wait: might be days for lots of pics
• Once the 3D model is made, PhotoScan can upload the result into SketchFab.

The program needs a lot of computer power, so get a computer with lots of disk space, RAM, CPU cores, and a good Graphics card. I'm getting ready for my 3rd computer upgrade in the last year.

I own a copy of the book that these illustrations come from - <em>The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts, And Walled Cities Of The Middle Ages</em> by Kaufmann and Kaufmann

Osprey publishing has a number of great books on castles and their development in different regions. They're very informative books with great drawings and pictures. I personally own both parts of the Norman Castles one and I'm absolutely in love.

https://ospreypublishing.com/store/military-history/series-books/fortress

'The Medieval Fortress' by J. E. Kaufmann and H. W. Kaufmann is an extremely in-depth book with an abundance of illustrations of details. It's probably the most complete work for terminology that I know of. However, some of it is a little outdated: they write that hygiene was terrible in the middle ages for instance, and they use the term 'Dark Ages' which isn't really used by historians any more (although they do address this). So take their writings on hygiene and sanitation with a pinch of salt, but overall their writing on the architectural elements and developments of castles from the Roman to early modern era is really good.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0306813580/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-vtvFbTS8FJ3D

This is an Android live wallpaper app which has a 3D scan of the beautiful Lanhoso castle on the top of the mountain.

Link to Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.androidworks.livewallpaper.lanhoso

Important to note, Eilean Donan was bombarded and almost heavily shelled in 1719 by British Government forces after the castle was garrisoned by rebel Jacobian and Spainish forces. After it was captured tt was then blown up, almost completely reducing the castle to rubble.

The reconsturction we see now was done from around 1919-1932. The building work didn't really follow any basis in historical record except for roughly following the layut of the foundations and as a result it's not a faithful or historically accurately e reconstruction. This isn't to dimish it in any way, it's just not maybe as 'old' as a lot of people belive when they see it!

I can't reccomend the book, The Mediaeval Castles of Skye and Lochalsh, enough. It's an amazing record of all the castles around the area here and it's definatley the most definiative resource for understanding them.

For me, it was the David Macaulay Castle book...I don't know if this Biesty book was out when I was a kid. I would have eaten it up. I might have to get it now for my son.

Go to your local library, the books I linked and ones like them are very often available in the kid's sections. Free!

Depending on what you are trying to do - this book is amazing. It really shakes your preconceptions by exploring how people lived in different times. Not "castles" but an incredible eye opener.

https://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private-ebook/dp/B003F3FJGY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Posting again - your question got me searching on Amazon - this book looks great. I'm going to order a copy of rmyself!

https://www.amazon.com/Castles-Their-Construction-History-Architecture/dp/0486248984/

Still for sale today.

The last review was January 20, 2017, so I suppose you can assume shortly before that was the last time it was sold.