Castles And Walls
A gate could welcome a traveller or hold back an army. Follow towers, ramparts and the boundaries people built to protect their worlds.
01 · Japan · 1609
Himeji Castle
Somewhere in the 1870s a man bought Himeji Castle at auction for the price of the roof tiles. The new Meiji government was busy dismantling the feudal order, and the hundreds of castles that had defined it were being sold off or torn down as embarrassing relics.
Read the story02 · Poland · c. 1274
Malbork
In 1457 the soldiers holding Malbork castle made a decision. They had gone months without wages. Their employer — the Teutonic Order, which had built the castle and sat in it for two hundred years — was insolvent. The soldiers were Bohemian mercenaries, and they found a way to collect what they were owed: they sold the castle to the king of Poland.
Read the story03 · France · c. 300
Carcassonne
The roofs are wrong, and they are the most famous thing about the place. Look at any photograph of Carcassonne and you see a skyline of steep grey cones, tower after tower topped with a witch's hat. They look impeccably medieval.
Read the story04 · China · c. 700 BC
Great Wall Of China
In 1644 the most formidable fortification on Earth was defeated by a man opening a gate. Wu Sangui commanded the Ming garrison at Shanhai Pass, where the wall runs down to the sea. A rebel army had just taken Beijing and the emperor had hanged himself.
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