Castle hunters have a new way to plan a fun and history-filled trip. CastleMap brings together thousands of fortified landmarks on one free, interactive map.
The CastleMap homepage listed 6,903 sites across 141 countries as of Aug. 7. That is 250 more landmarks than Time Out reported on Aug. 5.
Each entry includes a photograph, founding century, short history, and exact location. The best part is you don’t need an account to explore it.
Spain leads the atlas with 500 entries, followed by Germany with 471 and France with 452. The totals include castles, fortresses, palaces, châteaux and ruins.
How the interactive castle map works
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Time Out’s Facebook post shares a preview of the Castle Map project and directs readers to coverage of the interactive guide.
Users can zoom around the dark world map and select pins for quick facts. They can also browse by country or building type, choose a random landmark or open day-trip guides for 240 cities.
The site also includes a daily game called Guess the Castle. Players see one photograph, receive six guesses and get distance and compass-direction clues after each wrong answer.
CastleMap says its coordinates, dates and other facts come from Wikidata. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons, while histories draw from Wikipedia in English and 22 other language editions. The basemap comes from OpenFreeMap and Natural Earth.
The project’s About page states that the atlas is maintained by a single unnamed person. It also discloses that AI handles much of the work while a person decides which changes are released.
What travelers should know before using CastleMap
The atlas is curated and based on the availability of the information to the public. A landmark generally needs exact coordinates, a Wikimedia Commons photo and a Wikipedia article to qualify, so an omitted site is not necessarily unimportant.
The project refreshes from Wikidata, which helps explain why its total can change quickly. Its public changelog records corrections, category changes and additions.
CastleMap is best used as a starting point for inspiration. Travelers should confirm opening days, prices, accessibility and reservation requirements with each attraction’s official website.
The map and daily game are free. The underlying dataset can also be downloaded as CSV or GeoJSON under a CC0 public-domain dedication.