Hilltop fortresses of Europe

8 European hilltop fortresses — each mapped, dated and ready to explore.

• Château de Chinon

  France · 10th century

  France's long ridge fortress on the Loire, linked to Joan of Arc and the Plantagenets

• Rocca Calascio

  Italy · 10th century

  Italy's highest fortress, a mountaintop ruin in the Apennines of Abruzzo

• Loarre Castle

  Spain · 11th century

  Spain's great Romanesque fortress, among the oldest castles in Europe

• Château de Castelnaud

  France · 12th century

  France's Dordogne hilltop fortress, a rival stronghold in the Hundred Years' War

• Edinburgh Castle

  United Kingdom · 12th century

  Scotland's clifftop royal fortress, grown on a volcanic crag since the 1100s

• Marksburg Castle

  Germany · 12th century

  The only Rhine hilltop castle never destroyed, rising in stacked terraces

• Spiš Castle

  Slovakia · 12th century

  One of Europe's largest castle complexes, sprawling over a Slovak ridge

• Karlštejn

  Czechia · 14th century

  Bohemia's Gothic crown-jewel castle, founded by Emperor Charles IV in 1348