this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
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The world's castles, fortresses and palaces as points of light: 5,793 landmarks across 138 countries (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 3 days ago by Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz to c/map_enthusiasts@sopuli.xyz
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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.

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[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Castle in my town seems to be missing sadly enough, as pretty much any castle in my region.

[–] Amuxix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

You can see Portugal's outline!

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Nice! I've never seen anything like this before. You can really tell where all the contentious peoples liked to content.

[–] FluidBeef@quokk.au 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for engaging.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, now we can't see it as clearly because all the contentious people are online.

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thanks! Usually I have gotten a lot criticism for the website, but I have been fixing a lot on this website:)

[–] ThanksForAllTheFish@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You must get this sort of thing a lot, but why is the palace of Westminster missing, imo it's second in impressiveness only to Buckingham palace and it's fairly world famous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster

And the palace of Whitehall is listed as number 7 in England, but I've never heard of it, it's mostly destroyed, and what's left is not that impressive. If it's on historical value then fair enough, but still would have thought that Westminster makes the cut.

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 days ago

Thanks for the feedback! Honestly I think that Claude did not take Westminister on the map because it thought that it was only a parliament, not an actual palace. You are right here.

For Whitehall, I will do further verification because the fame listing comes from how famous the place is on Wikipedia. If there are no historical value and the fame comes from it being a city district, then I would have to delete it.

I will see to it later today.

[–] groet@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This shows how incredibly biased wikipedia is. I don't think there is a single place in Perus mountains that is not in sight of an Inca ruin. I would bet a lot of money they beat germanies 25.000 by at least a factor of 10.

Still cool, but its more of a "map of sights that have a wikipedia article" than a "map of castles and ruins"

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have also thought about Inca ruins because of its history. Thank you for this comment.

Wikipedia should have some of them covered, but I have to get it parsed differently than castles in UK for example. I will try to solve it later see if I can get some of them at least verified and include them on the map.

[–] groet@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah I think many of them are also listed as part of a larger archeological site and not individual buildings. The palace of the Inca at Machu Picchu doesn't have its own page on wikipedia.

For most ruins I fear they are not listed online anywhere at all

Edit: maybe turning it around and going with OSM data first and then linking the sites to wikipedia is more effective? OSM has pretty good searchable databases of archeological sites and individual buildings. The royal palace is listed as a "manor house" in close proximity to the "tourist attraction and archeological site" of Machu Picchu

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Thanks! I managed to add something in Peru now https://thecastlemap.com/changelog/

[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Well the data has to come from somewhere. Is there any place online where these are recorded?

[–] groet@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

I don't think there is anything like a comprehensive list of Inca ruins online. If there even exists a list it will probably be with the ministry of culture of Peru and most likely in paper form. Also in Spanish of course.

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Wikipedia! All landmarks on the map has even Wiki location and coordinates

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

OP means ruins of castles/palace, I assume. Not just ruins in general.

@flightmussy@sopuli.xyz ?

[–] groet@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Well they list separate numbers for fortress, castle, palace and ruins

[–] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is very cool. As a side note, I also appreciated that it was one of the only sites I've visited lately that said it wasn't interested in cookies, instead of giving me a legal document about how they're going to track me, whether or not I like it

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 days ago

I just let the Ai design privacy terms so that it actually follows them

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Zos_Kia@jlai.lu 4 points 3 days ago

And incidentally, I've never seen an emu in all my years living in Europe. If you think that's a coincidence...

[–] porcelainpitcher@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I'm curious about a Castle, Fortress, or Palace in Melbourne & Sydney Australia... As far as I know there are none of them here... Anywhere. A quick search reveals a theme park named Kryal Castle in Ballarat, a restaurant named Fortress in the CBD of Melbourne, & The Palace Theatre; which was demolished in 2020.

[–] rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

If you go to the website, you can zoom in and click it for details.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 5 points 3 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Macquarie

It was demolished over a century ago and the Sydney Opera House now stands where it used to be. The post description links to an interactive map where you can check each dot

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I am not sure how I can verify that there anything specific more in Sydney or Melbourne. I guess I can take an another round to see if there something more there:)

[–] porcelainpitcher@lemmy.today 1 points 2 days ago

I think the local people are taking the opportunity to do that for you! :) It's great!

[–] geolaw@aus.social 2 points 2 days ago

@Flightmussy @porcelainpitcher There is a fort in Brisbane, Australia, Fort Lytton

[–] Starburn@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Castle rose in buff point,

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/oncemajestic-castle-rose-at-buff-point-demolished-after-falling-into-state-of-disrepair/news-story/105271437e85857bfb4f38a4078de571

Used to visit it when I was a kid.

Now.demolished.

Goes to show that you shouldn't assume you know everything.

[–] porcelainpitcher@lemmy.today 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Cool! Good comment. Shame you had to post it from your high horse.

[–] Starburn@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not really, just responding to a dumb comment that relied on AI to inform their response.

[–] porcelainpitcher@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You practice Yabusame from that High Horseback?

[–] Starburn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not the one spouting misinformation, instead of correcting yourself you're just resorting to inane comments. I hope you reflect on what you have learned rather than attack the other person in the next exchange you have.

[–] porcelainpitcher@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

Read the other comments, fool. Don't just point fingers. I'm not the one that started this. You are. By commenting "Goes to show you shouldn't assume you know everything." How's that? By being curious and asking questions? Yep, that sounds like someone who thinks they know everything. Not so great when the horse bucks you off, is it? (I'm not the horse in this case; I'm just keeping with the idiom).

[–] doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Cool map! I think more could be added to the US map if you include historic armories. A lot of those buildings are more castle-like than the fortresses listed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Armories_on_the_National_Register_of_Historic_Places_by_state

A few specific very castley examples in new england: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Armory_(Springfield,_Massachusetts)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranston_Street_Armory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Armory

[–] Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

Thanks for the suggestion! I will verify them first and then add it to the map:)