197
The world's castles, fortresses and palaces as points of light: 5,793 landmarks across 138 countries (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/map_enthusiasts@sopuli.xyz
32 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I built this map from open data. Every point is one of 5,793 castles, fortresses, palaces and ruins across 138 countries: 2,591 castles, 1,180 fortresses, 934 palaces and 1,088 ruins. The density is the story. Europe blazes while most of the planet stays dark.

It is a curated atlas, not a complete inventory. Germany alone has an estimated 25,000 castle sites (According to some sources). A landmark makes the map when it has a real photo on Wikimedia Commons, a Wikipedia article and exact coordinates in Wikidata, balanced across countries so the map stays explorable. France leads with 351.

You can explore every one interactively at https://thecastlemap.com/ with photos, founding centuries and short stories, plus a daily Guess the Castle game. There are no ads or sign up, everything CC0 and free to download.

World map with 5,793 castles, fortresses and palaces drawn as points of light on a dark background. Europe is densely lit, most other regions sparse.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 8 points 3 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Macquarie

It was demolished over a century ago and the Sydney Opera House now stands where it used to be. The post description links to an interactive map where you can check each dot

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent