The fortress at Akershus is one of Oslo, Norway’s important identity markers. Within the walls, the center of the city was established in 1624. Today, Akershus remains an important landmark together with City Hall. Looking out to sea, this is Oslo’s most distinct silhouette – gray and fortified, starkly in contrast with the lakes, mountains, …
castles
Castle Porrona – Tuscany, Italy
Porrona Village was built around the 1100s, and for five hundred years this region belonged to the two largest Sienese families of nobility, the Tolomeis and the Piccolominis. In 1894, a French noble, Pietro de Rochefort, purchased the village and all of the buildings. Porrona remains a lovely village that is not inhabited by many …
Kissing the Stone at Blarney Castle
1You may think that the story of the Blarney Stone is myth, but you wouldn’t be entirely correct in that assumption. For more than two centuries, statesmen, literary geniuses, and silver screen movie stars have made the pilgrimage along with millions of others, to climb the legendary steps to kiss the Blarney Stone, gaining the …