World & Travelling – Meditations

April 3, 2024

Rocca d’Angera

Angera, the stronghold across the Maggiore from Arona, has been effectively repurposed into a tourist destination. Any ruins have been repaired and the great…

March 27, 2024

Rocca d’Arona

Of the things that one can remember from an old visit, the promise of walls stretching alongside the high cliffs of the beautiful Maggiore…

October 21, 2022

Mont-Saint-Michel

I visited Mont St. Michel more than six years ago, but it doesn’t take much to recall the tidal island with its abbey—though it…

October 14, 2020

Fort Ticonderoga

Ticonderoga has a name which might be difficult to remember at first, but once it’s in a mind it’s also unlikely to be forgotten….

October 13, 2020

Daugavgrīva

Swedish Livonia lasted for less than a century, and Swedish rule managed to fortify this important overseas territory less than its other provinces. Indeed,…

October 11, 2020

Schloss Mitau

At one point, the Livonian Order—or, to put it rightly, the Livonian Branch of the German Order—had its castle at Mitau, modern Jelgava. History’s…

October 10, 2020

Ordensburg Riga

From the moment after it was founded in 1201, Riga was the centre of Medieval Livonia: the administrative centre of the Archbishop of Riga…

August 31, 2020

Burg Wack

Burg Wack, or the castle of Vao, is described as a tower-fortress, the keep being one of the few surviving edifices. Background literature, as…

August 20, 2020

Burg Engern

Burg Engern, or Angerja, was a relatively minor fortified manor house, standing a small distance outside of Tallinn to the south. Construction was started…

August 1, 2020

Ordensburg Fellin (Viljandi)

It has taken me a very long while to gather myself for another look at a castle. There is no good reason for this—so,…