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Castellfollit de la Roca

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Been meaning to go there, I just can't stand large crowds. More so humidity, heat and crowds just equals no fun for me. You can see it from I-840 above the trees.
I first saw it years ago from the road and thought, "that sort of looks like a caste." I went once to the Ren Faire and was there for jousting and falconry. It was a good day. And that was probably about 15 years ago so it was not super packed.

Are you in Tennessee, Acmegamer Acmegamer ?
 
Castle Gwynn, Nashville, TN.

They have a big Renn Faire here every year for the month of May.
The husband was there when he was a wee young lad of 19 travelling with the Rainbow Gypsy Theatre (& the Celestial Circus) in the castle's first years in the bygone era called the Late-80s. Tells stories of sitting atop one tower on the Solstice and of the night lightning struck one (archetypal revelation!).
 
I first saw it years ago from the road and thought, "that sort of looks like a caste." I went once to the Ren Faire and was there for jousting and falconry. It was a good day. And that was probably about 15 years ago so it was not super packed.

Are you in Tennessee, Acmegamer Acmegamer ?
Yup, the corporation my wife works for merged with another and we had to come down here from Washington.
 
Yup, the corporation my wife works for merged with another and we had to come down here from Washington.
Nice! My hometown was Lawrenceburg, but as an adult I've lived in Memphis, Knoxville, and Johnson City. I left for Maine back in 2007.
 
Nice! My hometown was Lawrenceburg, but as an adult I've lived in Memphis, Knoxville, and Johnson City. I left for Maine back in 2007.
Living about 15 or so miles west of the castle currently. Off and on we've been house shopping but then the pandemic hit and house prices went crazy. So we put it on the back burner for the time being. Honestly though, I miss the Pacific Northwest. Love the Cascades.

I spent damn near a decade in Europe and visited a lot of castle etc, so they sort of ruined me for any in the U.S. that claims to be a castle. Hehe.
 
Does any Pubber who lives in Texas remember that large faux castle in downtown Houston? I'd always see it from the highway driving through the city, but never knew what it was
 
Living about 15 or so miles west of the castle currently. Off and on we've been house shopping but then the pandemic hit and house prices went crazy. So we put it on the back burner for the time being. Honestly though, I miss the Pacific Northwest. Love the Cascades.

I spent damn near a decade in Europe and visited a lot of castle etc, so they sort of ruined me for any in the U.S. that claims to be a castle. Hehe.
It does look a bit too tidy on the inside and out. When I first saw it I assumed it was a grain elevator, but they added more towers later.
 
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Does any Pubber who lives in Texas remember that large faux castle in downtown Houston? I'd always see it from the highway driving through the city, but never knew what it was
In like actual downtown? or in the massive urban sprawl that is Houston, downtown? Was it grey?
 
In like actual downtown? or in the massive urban sprawl that is Houston, downtown? Was it grey?

um....yes? I don't know TBH. It was near(er) the Astrodome I think. It was quite big - I think about a city block
 
Is it known what exactly was (or still is) inside it?
It was built to commemorate the bridge and triumph arch on the bridge in 103 CE. The architect dedicated the bridge to the last deified emperors of Rome, so I bet that's the purpose of the shrine. It is one of the two only completely intact temple/Shrines in Spain, the other being somewhere around Barcelona in Vic.

This one has an inscription over the doorway that eroded and King Philip IV ordered it be restored. Here is the English translation of the Latin:
To Emperor Nerva, Trajan, Caesar Augustus, Germanicus, Dacic, is enshrined​
this temple, the live rock of the Tagus, occupied by the Divine and the Caesar,​
art where Nature overcome itself.​
Perhaps the curiosity of the travelers, whom the celebrity of the new it like,​
inquire whom and under what vote, offered this temple.​
Who built the great bridge of huge factory was Lacer,​
to offer with great solemnity the sacrifices.​
Who made the bridge, Lacer, also dedicated the new temples:​
in that are met his votes, in this devote his offerings.​
The illustrious Lacer, with divine art, made the bridge​
to last forever in the ages of the perpetual world.​
The same man set up the temple​
devoted to the Roman gods along with Caesar, happy for each sacred construction.​
Gaius Julius Lacer made this temple and dedicated it with his friend Curius Laco Igaeditanus .​

I just stumbled on in it on Google map street view. :smile:
 
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The illustrious Lacer, with divine art, made the bridge​
to last forever in the ages of the perpetual world.​
Can't speak about "forever", but he definitely did a good job, given how long has passed since:thumbsup:!
 
Can't speak about "forever", but he definitely did a good job, given how long has passed since:thumbsup:!
It's seriously holding up! Hats off to the architect (Gaius Julius Lacer)for a bridge that's lasted almost 2000 years!

It's actually been partially destroyed a few times by different militaries, but was always rebuilt. It had a second triumph arch but they didn't rebuild that.
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But was there something inside the temple? Like, a shrine or a statue or something like that?
 
But was there something inside the temple? Like, a shrine or a statue or something like that?
Probably an alter in the back. I can't tell, but it looks pretty empty now. It was converted into a chapel of St. Julian in 1169, which helped preserve it.

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Fun fact, the bridge architect is buried under the temple in a tomb.
 
The flagstones around that yellow building make it look like an old plastic model railroad house plopped down. They have (or at least used to have) a "foundation" piece with a bit of grass or something surrounding the foundation extending out sort of the same amount as those flagstones and sort of the same non-rectangle shape.
 
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