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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.

all 32 comments

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[–] 20 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Nice! I've never seen anything like this before. You can really tell where all the contentious peoples liked to content.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Thanks! Usually I have gotten a lot criticism for the website, but I have been fixing a lot on this website:)

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    You must get this sort of thing a lot, but why is the palace of Westminster missing, imo it's second in impressiveness only to Buckingham palace and it's fairly world famous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster

    And the palace of Whitehall is listed as number 7 in England, but I've never heard of it, it's mostly destroyed, and what's left is not that impressive. If it's on historical value then fair enough, but still would have thought that Westminster makes the cut.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    Thanks for the feedback! Honestly I think that Claude did not take Westminister on the map because it thought that it was only a parliament, not an actual palace. You are right here.

    For Whitehall, I will do further verification because the fame listing comes from how famous the place is on Wikipedia. If there are no historical value and the fame comes from it being a city district, then I would have to delete it.

    I will see to it later today.

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    • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    This is very cool. As a side note, I also appreciated that it was one of the only sites I've visited lately that said it wasn't interested in cookies, instead of giving me a legal document about how they're going to track me, whether or not I like it

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    • [–] 11 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Super cool map.

    On a tangent: wars against emus lost by Europeans (0) vs. wars against emus lost by Australians (1+). Draw your own conclusions.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Maybe they should build a fortress to defend themselves against the emus, Why do you think that we have that many castles and fortresses in Europe?

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    • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (13 children)

    I'm curious about a Castle, Fortress, or Palace in Melbourne & Sydney Australia... As far as I know there are none of them here... Anywhere. A quick search reveals a theme park named Kryal Castle in Ballarat, a restaurant named Fortress in the CBD of Melbourne, & The Palace Theatre; which was demolished in 2020.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I am not sure how I can verify that there anything specific more in Sydney or Melbourne. I guess I can take an another round to see if there something more there:)

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Castle rose in buff point,

    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/oncemajestic-castle-rose-at-buff-point-demolished-after-falling-into-state-of-disrepair/news-story/105271437e85857bfb4f38a4078de571

    Used to visit it when I was a kid.

    Now.demolished.

    Goes to show that you shouldn't assume you know everything.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (4 children)

    Cool! Good comment. Shame you had to post it from your high horse.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    Not really, just responding to a dumb comment that relied on AI to inform their response.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    You practice Yabusame from that High Horseback?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    I'm not the one spouting misinformation, instead of correcting yourself you're just resorting to inane comments. I hope you reflect on what you have learned rather than attack the other person in the next exchange you have.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago

    Read the other comments, fool. Don't just point fingers. I'm not the one that started this. You are. By commenting "Goes to show you shouldn't assume you know everything." How's that? By being curious and asking questions? Yep, that sounds like someone who thinks they know everything. Not so great when the horse bucks you off, is it? (I'm not the horse in this case; I'm just keeping with the idiom).

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    • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Castle in my town seems to be missing sadly enough, as pretty much any castle in my region.

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    • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    You can see Portugal's outline!

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    [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    Cool map! I think more could be added to the US if you include historic armories. A lot of those buildings are more castle-like than the fortresses listed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Armories_on_the_National_Register_of_Historic_Places_by_state

    A few specific very castley examples in new england: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Armory_(Springfield,_Massachusetts)

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

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

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    • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    I have added some of your suggestions to Castlemap. Thank you very much everyone, I really appreciate the time you all have taken to comment here. I hope that you also enjoy the site as well

    https://thecastlemap.com/changelog/

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