Romantic castles and palaces

In making a selection from the large number of castles and palaces that might be included, I have endeavoured to choose those that would appeal equally to the lovers of fine arc...

Into this strange edifice,--at once a palace, senate, tribunal and prison under the government of the Republic,--we enter by a charming door in St. Mark’s corner, between the pi...

The Palace arose from its ashes with greater splendour than before; for the family of Stuart, unhappy in so many respects, were all of them fortunate in their taste for the fine...

The road is leading us round again out of the park towards the town; and here is a relic of the past in the shape of a ruined Dominican priory, which was built in 1396, and whic...

The Court and Gardens of Kensington were not livelier in Queen Anne’s time than in that of King William. Anne, as we have seen at Campden House, was a dull woman with a dull hus...

Evelyn, as the author of _Silva_ well might do, did not think much of the gardens in 1654. To bring them to perfection was reserved for that luckless of the heads of the Grevill...

A little higher up the river, but almost opposite to the huge mass of the Houses of Parliament, lies a broken, irregular pile of buildings, at whose angle, looking out over the...

The ruins of Futtehpore, the Versailles of the great Akbar, cover the summit of a hill twelve miles from Bhurtpore. On leaving that town, we travelled across a succession of mon...

That is our opinion of the real fact; and it is the one which at once reconciles the tradition and the proofs that the present splendid fabric was not completed in two years, bu...

At last, however, François I. came. By his time, the character of the French monarchy--the character of the French nation--had undergone a complete and lasting change. Louis Onz...

It was in a house adjoining the Riccardi Palace that Lorenzo, aided by the Spadassin Scoronconcolo, poniarded Duke Alexander, the natural brother of Catherine de’Medici, first D...

A most disagreeable stony road brought us to Ruvo, through a vine country. The pomegranate hedges in flower, and the holme oak loaded with kermes, enlivened the prospect, which...

Frederick the Great, however, duly appreciated the beauty of this neighbourhood. Here he delighted to retire. Steam has now converted Potsdam into a suburb of Berlin, and pours...

If in your early youth you have devoured the _Fabliaux et Contes_, _King Arthur and the Knights of his Round Table_, and other legends of old Romaunce, you will recognize in Hol...

This pretty chapel forms a striking contrast with its neighbouring tower. Just in proportion as the chamber in the tower is deaf, cold and dumb, and admits a sinister light by i...

The impression left upon the mind after traversing this palace in its length and breadth is one of weariness and disappointment. How shall we reconstruct the long-past life whic...

The grandson of Henri IV., so passionate for the grandeur of his house, bought Saint-Cloud for Philip of Orleans, his brother, generally called _Monsieur_. Various acquisitions...

The Arabian style, with its interruptions, distortions and its broken lines, its lace of stucco cut out with a punch, its ceilings of stalactites, its bee-hive niches, its marbl...

Several motives probably weighed with Wolsey in fixing on Hampton Court as a residence. In the first place, he was in need of a secluded country place, within easy access of Lon...

The freest public lounge is not more open to access than is now the seat of Mogul jealousy--the _Seraglio_. “There was scarcely a chamber that had not a reservoir adjoining it--...

I looked around me: the vast deserted plain was transformed as if by enchantment into an immense garden full of delightful groves, crossed in every direction by great avenues, d...

Thus the first public deeds of the providential mission of Joan of Arc are connected with Chinon. At this moment, Charles VII. had by his side another woman of generous heart an...

The night of September 22nd heard the shrieks of the tortured king: that they reached the ears of people in the town, who crossed themselves and prayed for the passing soul, is...

Upon what document Sascorbaro relies for this statement no one can say; there was no inscription, no medal and no sign whatever that could certify to the identity of the skeleto...

When or how the stone obtained its singular reputation, it is difficult to determine; the exact position among the ruins of the castle is also a matter of doubt; the peasant-gui...

Methinks, if such good fortune ever befell a bookish man, I should choose this lodge for my own residence, with the topmost room of the tower for a study, and all the seclusion...