Casa Loma

Lonely Planet review

Literally the 'House on a Hill,' this mock medieval castle towers above The Annex on a cliff that was once the shoreline of the glacial Lake Iroquois, from which Lake Ontario derived. Climb the 27m Baldwin Steps up the slope from Spadina Ave, north of Davenport Rd, past flowering gardens and benches.

The eccentric 98-room mansion - a crass architectural orgasm of castellations, chimneys, flagpoles, turrets and Rapunzel balconies - was built between 1911 and 1914 for Sir Henry Pellat, a wealthy financier who made bags of cash from his exclusive contract to provide Toronto with electricity. He later lost everything in land speculation, the resultant foreclosure forcing Hank and his wife to move out. The castle briefly reopened as a luxury hotel, but its big-band nightclub attracted more patrons than the hotel ever did, and it too failed.

During The Depression, the charitable Kiwanis organization bought the castle and has operated it as a tourist site ever since. Self-guided audio tours (available in eight languages) lead you through the sumptuous interior. The conservatory where the Pellats entertained is lit by an Italian chandelier with electrical bunches of grapes. Rugs feature the same patterns as those at Windsor castle. The original kitchen had ovens big enough to cook an ox, and secret panels and tunnels abound. The stables were used by the Canadian government for secret WWII research into anti-U-boat technology.