Castles, fortresses & palaces

Peleș Castle was built in the 1870s and 80s as a summer residence for Romania's first king, Carol I, tucked into the Carpathian foothills above Sinaia. It was one of the first castles in Europe wired for electricity, generated on-site by its own power plant.

The exterior mixes German Neo-Renaissance with half-timbered Alpine details, but the interior is where the money really shows: over 170 rooms, each themed to a different European style, with carved wood ceilings and stained glass gathered from across the continent. Carol I reportedly checked on construction daily; the result took decades to finish.

Himeji Castle is the best-preserved of Japan's original feudal-era castles, dating to the early 1600s and never destroyed by war, fire, or earthquake in over 400 years. Its bright white plaster walls earned it the nickname White Heron Castle.

Most of Japan's famous castles are concrete reconstructions, rebuilt after WWII bombing raids or earlier fires. Himeji is the rare exception still standing on its original wooden frame. A renovation completed in 2015 restored the plaster to its original brightness, which is why it looks almost new despite being centuries old.

The Imperial Citadel in Hue was the seat of Vietnam's Nguyễn Dynasty emperors from 1802 until 1945, modeled loosely on Beijing's Forbidden City. Much of it was damaged during the 1968 Battle of Hue and is still being restored today.

The complex is walled and moated, with the Ngọ Môn Gate as its formal entrance — the spot where emperors once presided over ceremonies. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1993, and restoration work has slowly been rebuilding sections lost to war damage in the decades since.

The fortress above Stari Bar sits on a hillside overlooking the abandoned old town below it, most of which was left in ruins after an 1878 gunpowder explosion and never rebuilt. The fortress and the town under it together tell that whole story.

Stari Bar's fortress dates back over a thousand years, passing between Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman control before an explosion in the old powder magazine leveled much of the settlement below it in the 19th century. Rather than rebuild, the population moved down to the coast, leaving the old town and its fortress as a preserved ruin instead of a living city.

The Royal Palace of Madrid is Western Europe's largest palace by floor area, with thousands of rooms, though it hasn't been the monarchy's actual residence since the 1930s. It's still used for state ceremonies.

Built on the site of a former fortress that burned down on Christmas Eve 1734, the current palace took over two decades to complete. Spain's royal family lives elsewhere in Madrid; the palace itself is used mainly for official state functions and is open to visitors most days it isn't hosting one.