The Best 16 Best European Castles

The more I think about my trip to Europe in the fall the more excited I get. There is really something to be said about a trip you plan from start to finish on your own, with your own money, you are much more vested in every part of the process. Recently every time I have seen a picture of something that has any chance of being in Eastern Europe I stop and take a second glance, especially on Pinterest. This lead me down a terrifically scenic rabbit hole into European Castles.

I did an intensive search to learn the difference between a castle and a palace. Of all the answers I came across my favorite said that a castle is a fortified building or series of buildings designed to withstand enemy attacks and sieges compared to palace a which is a leisure building, designed to maximize the comfort of its inhabitants, and impress the visitors. This means that palaces like the stunningly beautiful Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria that I am going to visit on my Eastern Europe trip in September was not able to be included on this list. A few of these were questionable but if they had the word castle in them and looked like a solidified wall, I added them in.