Castle enthusiasts, assemble!

We've all had a hobby that got a little 'out of hand', right? This week I'm writing to you about a wonderful example of this from one of our readers. Jelle Drok has built Thousand Castles: a free, non-commercial, multilingual database of more than 57,000 castles, fortresses, palaces, and fortified churches in 170 countries.

You can rank and review the castles, build collections for a trip, and play a guessing game where you see a photo and click on the map where you think the castle stands. There are some tips on how to do this better in the 'About Me' section. Jelle has also provided a lot of detail about where the content comes from, his process and intentions, and a request for help from knowledgeable readers who find things to correct.

There are also forty-three themes, each bringing together the places that belong to one story, with a background text, a map, and a list of literature. One example Jelle gave is Hadrian's Wall, others include the crusader castles of the Levant and the brick castles of the Teutonic Order. 

One of my first thoughts about this fascinating medievalist project was 'how is castle defined?' because, as a professional nerd, I can't help myself. So I was delighted to see that Jelle opens his site with precisely this point and thoughts about how to address it. I'll let you explore that for yourself...

You can find out more at Thousand Castles.

Until next time,

Rhiannon