elcome to Castles.nl! This is a personal, non-commercial, one man operated website, launched in November 1999. It started with descriptions of 7 Dutch castles, was continually updated and now describes more than 1900 castles, towers and other fortifications in Europe and beyond! And new castles are regularly being added! I hope you'll like it.

What is listed? Only castles and other fortifications which I've personally visited during my holidays and spare time. I know there can be a lot of discussion about what exactly makes a structure a castle. But in my opinion, a castle is a structure with realistic defensive features built from around 800 AD till 1600 AD. So if you can't find the castle you're after, it either didn't fit my definition or I haven't visited it (yet).

Here and there you will also find some other fortifications or buildings that don't meet my own criteria of a castle, but they were added for no other reason than me liking their appearance. Hey, that's the advantage of running your own website!

Furthermore, if you want to use some of my images or texts from this website, just ask. For a lot of castles featured here, I have more historical info, images, and ground plans available. Again; if needed, just ask.

So, to get to the castles, use the menus on the left or at the top. Enjoy your visit! And don't hesitate to mail me when you've got questions, comments or whatever, I always like hearing from my visitors.