I built this map from open data. Every point is one of 5,793 castles, fortresses, palaces and ruins across 138 countries: 2,591 castles, 1,180 fortresses, 934 palaces and 1,088 ruins. The density is the story. Europe blazes while most of the planet stays dark.
It is a curated atlas, not a complete inventory. Germany alone has an estimated 25,000 castle sites (According to some sources). A landmark makes the map when it has a real photo on Wikimedia Commons, a Wikipedia article and exact coordinates in Wikidata, balanced across countries so the map stays explorable. France leads with 351.
You can explore every one interactively at https://thecastlemap.com/ with photos, founding centuries and short stories, plus a daily Guess the Castle game. There are no ads or sign up, everything CC0 and free to download.
Super cool map.
On a tangent: wars against emus lost by Europeans (0) vs. wars against emus lost by Australians (1+). Draw your own conclusions.
Maybe they should build a fortress to defend themselves against the emus, Why do you think that we have that many castles and fortresses in Europe?
And incidentally, I've never seen an emu in all my years living in Europe. If you think that's a coincidence...