Fortress sights in Europe
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Veste Oberhaus
A 13th-century defensive fortress, built by the prince-bishops, Veste Oberhaus towers over Passau with patriarchal pomp. Not surprisingly, views of the city and into Austria are superb from up here.
Inside the bastion is the Oberhausmuseum, a regional history museum where you can uncover the mysteries of medieval cathedral building, learn what it took to become a knight and explore Passau's period as a centre of the salt trade. Displays are labelled in English.
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Museggmauer
For a bird’s-eye view over Lucerne’s rooftops to the glittering lake and mountains beyond, wander the medieval ramparts. A walkway is open between the Schirmerturm (tower), where you enter, and the Wachturm, from where you have to retrace your steps. You can also ascend and descend the Zytturm or Männliturm (the latter not connected to the ramparts walkway).
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Schloss
Sticking up above the Altstadt like a picture-book pop-up against a theatrical backdrop of wooded hills, the partly ruined, red sandstone Schloss is Heidelberg's heart-stealer. Palatinate princes, stampeding Swedes, Protestant reformers, raging fires and lightning bolts - this Gothic-Renaissance fortress has seen the lot. Its tumultuous history, story-book looks and changing moods have inspired the pens of Mark Twain and Victor Hugo as well as Turner's prolific paintbrush.
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Citadelle
The greatest military architect of the 17th century, Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban (p944), designed this massive fortress, shaped like a five-pointed star, after the capture of Lille by France in 1667. Made of some 60 million bricks, it still functions as a French and NATO military base. It stands at the northeastern end of bd de la Liberté. Outside the 2.2km-long outer ramparts is the city centre’s largest park.
Children will love the amusement park, playgroundand small municipal zoo(admission free; h10am- 6pm, closed mid-Dec–mid-Feb), all on the Citadelle’s southeastern flank. Served by the Citadine shuttle bus.
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Vardøhus Festning
The star-shaped Vardøhus Festning – yes, of course it’s the world’s most northerly – was constructed in 1737 by King Christian VI. For a fortress, it’s painted in gentle fairy-tale colours. On a nice, sunny day it’s pleasant to stroll around the flower-festooned bastions, past turf-roofed buildings and Russian cannons. You pay the admission fee either at the guard office or by dropping it into the WWII sea mine that guards the entrance.
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Rumeli Hisarı
Just before the Fatih Bridge are the majestic structures of Rumeli Hisarı and Anadolu Hisarı (Fortress of Anatolia). Mehmet the Conqueror had Rumeli Hisarı built in a mere four months in 1452, in preparation for his siege of Byzantine Constantinople. For its location, he chose the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, opposite Anadolu Hisarı, which Sultan Beyazıt I had built in 1391. By doing so, Mehmet was able to control all traffic on the strait, cutting the city off from resupply by sea.
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Portixedda
Oristano's tidy historic centre retains just a whiff of its former glory, with rows of solid stone houses with tall shuttered windows and lofty internal courtyards. It's almost circular in plan and was once surrounded by a mighty fortified wall whose only remnants are the Torre di Mariano II on Piazza Roma, and the Portixedda just off Via Giuseppe Mazzini to the east.
The latter contains an exhibition showing what the city's defences would have looked like before they were pulled down in the late 19th century.
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Fort of Pafos
This small, empty fort guards the harbour entrance and is entered by a little stone bridge over a moat. Most visitors climb the fort for the good views of the harbour from its roof. The fort also serves as an event venue during the Pafos Aphrodite Festival.
The fort is in fact all that remains of an earlier Lusignan fort built in 1391; the rest of it was destroyed by the Venetians less than a hundred years later. The Ottomans fixed only the roof, on which they built eight cannon slots aiming in all directions.
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Schlossbergbahn
Rising to 473m, Schlossberg is the site of the original fortress that gave Graz its name. Its wooded slopes can be reached by a number of paths, with the funicular Schlossbergbahn from Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai, or by Glass Lift from Schlossbergplatz. Even Napoleon was hard-pressed to raze this fortress, but raze it he did. The whole area was later landscaped and today an open-air theatre, a great restaurant-bar and a small Garrison Museum are the legacy.
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Kastro
The city's wonderful old Kastro stands on the site of the acropolis of ancient Patrai. The Romans were the first to build a fort here around AD 550, but the present structure is of Frankish origin, remodelled many times over the centuries by the Byzantines, Venetians and Turks. It was in use as a defensive position until WWII.
Set in an attractive pencil-pined park, it is reached by climbing the 190-plus steps at the end of Agiou Nikolaou. Great views of the Ionian Islands of Zakynthos and Kefallonia are the reward.
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Kongsten Festning
On what was once called 'Gallows hill' stands the flower-festooned Kongsten Festning . Dating from 1685, it once served as a lookout and warning post for the troops at nearby Gamlebyen. Although it can get overrun on summer weekends, this otherwise lonely and appealingly unkempt spot is a fun place to scramble around the turrets, embankments, walls and stockade, or just sit in the sun and soak up the silence.
It's a 10-minute walk southeast of the Gamlebyen drawbridge (turn off Torsnesvien at Fredrikstad Motell & Camping).
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Exobourgo fortress
The ruins of the Venetian fortress of Exobourgo, atop a 640m (2099ft) hill, stand sentinel over a cluster of unspoilt villages. At the fortress, built on an ancient acropolis, the Venetians made their last stand against the Turks in 1715.
The ascent can be made from several villages; from Volox head south past the Koumaras turn-off on the road to Steni, then go right up a side road that ends at a church. From here it's a steep but reasonable 15-minute walk to the summit where the view will take away whatever breath you have left.
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Fredriksten Fortress
Crowning the hilltop behind Halden is the 1661 Fredriksten Fortress, which has resisted six Swedish sieges and never been captured. The museums in the castle grounds cover various facets of the fortress' history. Downhill from the main entrance, the War Museum contains military artefacts and a variety of information on Halden's experiences of war from 1660 onwards, including details on the Norwegian independence movement in 1905. A tunnel leads up into Prince Christian's Bastion - the main vantage point for the fortress defenders.
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Fortezza
Rethymno's 16th-century fortezza is on the site of the city's ancient acropolis. Within its massive walls a great number of buildings once stood, of which only a church and a mosque survive intact. The ramparts offer good views, while the site has lots of ruins to explore. The main gate is opposite the Archaeological Museum on the eastern side of the fortress, but there were once two other gates on the western and northern sides for the delivery of supplies and ammunition.
In summer it is a stunning concert venue for the Renaissance Festival.
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Saranta Kolones Fortress
In the Pafos archaeological site are the remains of the medieval Saranta Kolones Fortress, named for the 'forty columns' that were once a feature of the now almost levelled structure. Little is known about the precise nature or history of the original fortress, other than it was built by the Lusignans in the 12th century and was subsequently destroyed by an earthquake in 1222.
The structure had four huge corner towers and another four intermediary towers along the joining walls. A few desultory arches are the only visual evidence of its original grandeur.
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Fishermen’s Bastion
The bastion is a neo-Gothic masquerade that most visitors (and Hungarians) believe to be much older. But who cares? It looks medieval and offers among the best views in Budapest. Built as a viewing platform in 1905 by Frigyes Schulek, the bastion’s name was taken from the medieval guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of the wall. The seven gleaming white turrets represent the Magyar tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. In front of the bastion is an ornate equestrian monument to St Stephen by sculptor Alajos Stróbl.
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Trast Castle
High on a hill overlooking Rijeka and the Rječina River, the 13th-century Trast Castle occupies a position of immense strategic importance. There may have been a Liburnian hill fort here, but it was the Frankopan dukes of Krk who built the present castle to protect their holdings in Vinodol, further east. The Konak, an enclosed yard with a cistern, is the best- preserved part of the original structure.
From the 13th to the 15th century, Trsat belonged to the Frankopans or their relatives, but it was seized by the Habsburgs at the end of the 15th century.
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Rocca Paolina
A once-massive 16th-century fortress (Palazzo della Provincia) is now known as the Rocca Paolina. Pope Paolo III Farnese built the monstrosity in the 1540s, wiping out entire sections of what had been a wealthy neighbourhood. Now used as the throughway for the scale mobili, you can still see former homes of Perugia’s powerful medieval families, capped with the bricked-over roof of the papal fortress. Its nooks and crannies are now used for art exhibits throughout the year, and the last weekend of the month sees the antiques market held here.
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Oscarsborg Fortress
Not to be missed is the imposing Oscarsborg Fortress which lies on an offshore island and dates back to the 1600s. It was the Oscarsborg batteries that sank the German warship Blücher on 9 April 1940, an act that saved the King and the Norwegian government from being captured. The fort museum was renovated in 2005 and open-air concerts and complete operas are held here throughout the summer. There is even a hotel, spa and restaurant on the island if you want to extend your stay.
Ferries to the island depart 14 times daily from the harbour from mid-June to mid-August.
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Citadel
Continuing north of the New Town you'll soon see the Citadel, a massive 19th-century fortress overlooking the Vistula. Built by the Russian tsar to intimidate Warsaw following the November Insurrection of 1830, it served as a notorious political prison for years and nowadays is used by the military. The huge gate overlooking the river is known as Brama Straceń (Gate of Execution; M056E), a spot where political prisoners were executed all too frequently after the 1863 uprising.
From the gate, a short cobbled road leads to the Muzeum Pawilon-X, which preserves a wing of the old political prison.
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Bomarsund
East of Kastelholm are the ruins of the Russian fortress at Bomarsund. After the war of 1809, Russian troops began to build Bomarsund as a defence against the Swedes. Construction took decades, and the mammoth building was operational but not wholly complete by the time the Crimean War (1854) came around. Twenty-five British and French ships bombarded it heavily from the sea; after two days it capitulated and was demolished by the victors. The evocative honeycomb ruins can be seen on both sides of the main road at the eastern end of Sund, by the bridge leading across a beautiful sound to Prästö island.
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Shumen Fortress
Towering over the city from a steep hillside, the Shumen Fortress dates originally to the early Iron Age. It was augmented and reinforced by the Thracians in the 5th century BC, and between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, the Romans added towers and more walls. It was again fortified later on by the Byzantines, who made it an important garrison. During the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396), the fortress was one of northeast Bulgaria’s most significant settlements, renowned for its pottery and metalwork. However, invading Ottomans in the late 14th century burnt and looted the fortress.
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Tsarevets Fortress
Home to Bulgarian tsars during Veliko Târnovo's reign as the nation's capital (1185-1393), this hilltop citadel looms over the medieval town. Inside the triangular walls are the remains of over 400 houses and 18 churches, built between the 5th and 12th centuries.
Following the left wall from the main gate, you go past a watch tower then to execution rock where the convicted saw their last moments in the living Bulgarian world.
At night, when tour groups shell out the bucks, an extravagant 'sound and light show' illuminates the citadel (and town). Locals love it, and watch from all over town for free.
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Surp Grigor
The 11th-century Surp Grigor church nestles next to Surp Poghos-Petros, and there's a masterfully miniaturised chapel above the gatehouse. The fortifications, added in the 17th century, have been restored and are full of dining halls, towers and libraries. At the monastery's peak some 600 monks lived and worked at Tatev, and national icon St Grigor Tatevatsi (St Gregory of Tatev, 1346-1409) is buried here.
In the monastery'scourtyard, look for the 8m octagonal pillar topped by a khatchkar. The 9th century monument is said to have predicted seismic activity (or the roar of hooves by approaching armies) by shifting.
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Knights' Stronghold
Little remains of the Knights' Stronghold, built between 1207 and 1226 among woods on the northeastern edge of Sigulda. The castle hasn't been repaired since the Great Northern War, but its ruins are perhaps more evocative because of that. There's a great view through the trees to the archbishop's reconstructed Turaida Castle, on the far side of the valley. On the way to the ruins from town, you pass Sigulda Church (Siguldas baznīca), built in 1225 and rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, and also the 19th-century New Sigulda Castle (Siguldas jaunā pils), the former residence of Prince Kropotkin and now a sanatorium.
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