As Plantagenet and Tudor enthusiasts, we can’t help but be enthralled by the castles our royal and noble friends called home. Fortunately, many of these castles remain throughout Britain – some still standing and well-maintained, and others in some state of ruin, with keeps and buildings and walls crumbling from the centuries.
But if we’re fortunate to be able to visit any of these castles, it can be an unforgettable experience to stand where our favorite royal stood, to share the same space even if we are separated by time. We imagine what they felt and did in these rooms. We imagine them entering through the castle gate or walking atop the castle walls. We imagine elaborate meals in the great halls, the warmth from a glowing fire, secret meetings on the winding stone steps, or a quiet evening in their bedchamber.
This month, e-Royalty is recommending an exquisite website called Lost in Castles, along with its delightful Facebook page of the same name. As an impassioned castle lover, you can step back in time and see how these castles looked once upon a time.
On the Lost in Castles website, you see numerous – and quite lovely – paintings, engravings and old photos of castles throughout England, Wales, Scotland and France. Some of the images show what these castles look like today, while other images are from earlier time periods.
You can literally spend many a happy hour lost in lovely castle imagery. (Pun quite intended.) But what makes the Lost in Castle website such an amazing find is the dozen or so ruined castles these fine researchers are in in the process of reconstructing.
From in-depth photography and detailed research and analysis, researcher John Fox builds models of what the castles looked like in their prime. Here you can view picture after picture of castle ruins, next to detailed drawings and 3-D renderings of the original layouts of the castle – complete with recreated fortress walls, towers, gatehouses and more.
But the people behind this ingenious website take these imaginative recreations to a new and very exciting level. Using state of the art computer graphics, the digital artist, Joseph A. Fox, beautifully reconstructs the full glory of these castles that now lie in various degree of ruin. Now for the first time in centuries, you can see the walls rebuilt, the inner and outer wards reestablished, the rooms refurnished and more. You truly step back in time to see how these castles looked when our favorite nobles and royals called their castle home.
In addition, Lost in Castles offers a number of DVDs for sale digitally reconstructing the castles as they once were, and retelling the history of the castle. One of our favorites is Middleham Castle, the main home of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) and his wife, Anne Neville.
If you’re planning a visit to any of these castles in the future, we recommend you first visit Lost in Castles to “see” how magnificent they once were. After seeing the reconstructed castle on the website, it will be easy to imagine as you tour the ruin where the moat, the gateway entrance, the chapel, the main hall, etc. would have been.
Or, if you want to learn more about a previously visited castle ruin, go to Lost in Castles to see how your castle once looked in all its glory. Compare your pictures to the beautifully reconstructed imaginings on the website.
Plus, if you’re reading a great historical novel – fact or fiction – and want to visualize what the featured castle looked like in order to place the royal and noble characters within its’ walls, then stop by Lost in Castles to further enhance your reading pleasure.
If you’re on Facebook, be sure and like their Facebook page, Lost in Castles, at https://www.facebook.com/lostincastles. This page is simply one breathtaking photograph, painting, engraving of castle after castle after castle – some quite familiar to you … and some we would imagine you have never heard of.
For any serious lover of the Middle Ages, Lost in Castles should be bookmarked, liked and visited often. Five very big stars. Enjoy!
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