Tag: castles

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life Scenery

Giro 2024 part 5 castles and a train

The pirate city shown in my last post also offered up a train – sponsoring the giro of course. They often carry the trophy in these trains and the train matches the riders usually on a coastal stretch for photo opportunities! Obviously don’t catch a train when the giro is near your route…..

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life Scenery

Giro Castles 2024 part 4

The question is what’s round the corner?
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life Scenery

Castles of the Giro 2024

Here are some more castles or rather famous palaces, Roman Pompei and yet more medieval bastions….Cassini and Naples today.

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life Scenery

Giro Castles 2024 Castello di Vicalvi

Here is one castle that fell under eye of the giro pro cycling helicopter. A classic hilltop location. It still has some nice details especially the main gateway area.

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life Scenery

Giro Castles 2024

Late Spring sees the first of three top pro cycling events – the Giro d’Italia which are helicopter televised from start to finish.

This means you get about 4000 km of Italian countryside.

And with Italy that means castles.

Fortified cities are also favourite visits on two wheels
This year saw a couple of stretches of the white gravel of Tuscany
Everyday the cyclists head out castle hunting!
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life natural world

Intermission 24a

Intermissions have been thin on the ground this year. Perversely the awful weather has meant more time indoors – war gaming.

But there have been some interesting sights all the same.

The clouds and sky remain a fascination for colours and shapes
Yorkshire playing fields – cricket might be a case of no pitch rather just rain stopping play
Moonlight has been ok
Plenty of dark brooding skies even during the day!
There have also been very bright days – the Roman multi angular walls of York stand proudly
Cinema top view in 2024 was Oppenheimer – but what’s on the wall? A commemorative plaque to this free French hero of WW2 York – P/O Yves Mahe – 82 years on.
The odd Sahara warm front plume has given its signature vibrant sunsets
The demise of GCN plus pro cycling app means it’s Eurosport on discovery complete with amazing editing that chops the last 200m of the race (you could not make it up). Still you get the castle pictures during boring mid race bits
Very moody castle at Sandal near Wakefield.
Sky colour – blue pink contrasts are always impressive
I always like these skies when there is some fiery yellow gold of the sun still in play
I think Tony Blair was in power last time I stepped inside the walls of the national railway museum. Still it is a fantastic visit
I think I was last here when England won the World Cup (only joking). It was quite a while ago and now it’s got a roof of sorts. I seem to remember a lot of complaints about the proposal although that was probably the visitor centre that has not appeared. Clifford’s tower in York is erroneously called a castle (of which it was only part). It is vastly improved by the protection and access works that have been done. The 17th century garrison destruction of the tower interior turned the walls red.
Last of a sunset and the inspiring colour gradations of almost black through dark blues to a washed out grey then tepid orange. the black outlines of trees and buildings are important to provide contrast to the orange while without the orange the colour range of blues would be the poorer
Categories
Military History

Castles Watch – Giro d’Italia

We move to Italy for the Giro d’Italia.

Typical Italian town with narrow streets, church and often detached square tower
Flags and Sashes – Italian Cities all have identity and their medieval past is often the most influential – also heralding the rennaissance. The very concept of a modern united Italy overlays strong local identity.
This keep at Ripattoni caught my eye with its stone framing? The splayed base is something you don’t often see in in earlier castles in the UK. Is this early medieval or much later then? Strange – internet searches only show a different Ripattoni whose keep/tower or torre is clearly built of bricks and stones without the framing.
A typical hilltop town expanded around its original castle with square defence tower
This castle is attributed to Frederick II – Emperor – mid thirteenth century
looks more Norman?

Naples – some serious constructions

round towers and flared bases – looks like it was moated – wet or dry? not much opportunity for mining even if it was a dry moat though.
detour – always an amazing sight.

Amalfi with Ravello cling to a rocky coastline and were naval in outlook. Amalfi was a vibrant state in the late Byzantine period

Back to Naples……

harbour fortress and former medieval castle I believe

Heading north……..

This looks like a new build in the gunpowder era or just maybe there was an earlier castle now buried within its construction.

Italian castles are a splendid mix of square and round towers plus later bastions. Wikipedia have a convenient thread on bastions………

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

Bergamo was a significant City and often fought over.

Further into the lakes…….

Which Romans in the 6th Century – 500 to 599 AD? I guess thats Byzantine Exarchate by then as we are on the Adige in the Trento region? Shortly to be invaded by the Lombards and then the Carolingians. After them came the German Emperors and this castle layout dates from 13th century.

An original “guns of navarone” – scenario beckons?
Something a bit different – the bridge had many interesting lives and was destroyed in world war 2 – this modern version is a copy of the 1569 replacement bridge – if you see what I mean.
The great thing about many castles in Italy is they are a composite – irregularly shaped, with square and round towers plus later gunpowder era bastions.
circular wall circuit
square wall circuit
congestion
the ever present piazza and tower – note its looks to predate the adjacent building because of its misalignment. Its 13th century and so is the Paazzo to the left while the connecting part seems 17th century – which makes sense and again is characteristic of building upon building giving these cities their attraction to the eye.

now we go to the high passes…..

Fort built in the 1890’s
Memorial tribute to the savage mountain war between the austrians and italians in world war 1 complete with artillery piece
This impressive tower in Rome overlooks the Tiber and was there in 532 when Belisarius retook the city from the Goths for Emperor Justinian – Castel Sant d’Angelo AD134/139, which I think is so impressive when you see it. Its contents were looted in the 401 sack while later on the Romans took its decorative stonework to dress up St Peters. This reminds me that you can see fantastic Byzantine metalwork in Italy – made by craftsmen from Constantinople and sometimes simply looted from there by Normans and Venetians etc.
no idea which battle or which painting/mural either !
I started to watch the Slovenia cycle race but got distracted – I believe its a castle rich area given is “marcher” region history.

dates from 1278 according to brief wikipedia entry. I like the pen and ink picture!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDovnek_Castle

There you go – hardly a straight edge in sight – 0k a couple – but in Italy the castle and fortress designs seem to hug the contours and show only your imagination stands between you and your own dream castle.

Categories
Military History

Castle Watch – Spanish Cycling

Some more castles and fortresses as the Basque Tour went to the east coast and Barcelona. This time the theme is Rennaissance and Early Modern Warfare with structural reactions to the development of gunpowder………

the original medieval citadel/castle is in the middle centre stretching back toward camera to the right.
Square towers tell you it was a pre gunpowder build with round towers maybe added later although sometimes if half round they suggest a roman era construction continued in use.
The well defended entrance of this fine fortress above Barcelona shows the impact of gundpowder technology
re-entrant angles permit killing fields for the attacker while the density/depth of the lower profile walls absorb the effect of gunpowder projectiles far better.
Categories
life Military History

Intermission 22f

The Giro offered up some interesting castles this year. And as usual Italy is replete with historical narrative.

Hawkwood fighting for the Pope oversaw a massacre by his condottieri here in 1376
The main fortress remains imposing

Next up Julius Ceasar would have to queue these days to cross his famous river

Crossing the Rubicon – its a bit busier these days……

Another city in the “Romagnol” also has fine surviving medieval fortress

Forlimpopoli

Forlimpopoli suffered in medieval times – it was a battleground for Papal control of the area.

Forli another city on the Via Emilia where in medieval times the Ordelaffi family fought the Popes for its control, finally being dominated after it was siezed by Cesare Borgia.

And Faenza too……..dominated in the 14th Century by the Guelph Manfredi

Into the mountains and we switch to Napoleonic themes

Rocca d’Anfo initially a Venetian fortification was expanded by Napoleon in the 1800’s

Not quite as many images this year but these aerial shots give a different perspective on some amazing historical sites across Italy.