Soave Castle... northern Italy

http://www.castellodisoave.it/castellosoave_ing/castellosoave_home.html

The view as we approached the castle and taken from the school bus window.  The castle has 3 different walled courtyards as part of the 'defense' system.

This is the entrance and it also happens to be a 'drawbridge' (see the opening in the brick?  That's where the drawbridge would have been raised and lowered.)

This is at the top of the Drawbridge entrance.  It is St. George slaying the dragon.

The castle is over 700 years old.  This shape is the original parts of the castle- tops like this 'indicate' a bishop's hat and when the castle was first built - it was under the leadership of the church.

The actual name of the family that owned the castle later on- (hundreds of years ago and it still belongs to this family now) and I think (IF I am remembering correctly- that it belonged to 3 different families?)  This building appeared to be the 'care-takers' quarters and it was clear that someone was still living in it- curtains were at the windows/etc.  The front side is where you paid your entrance fee/s.

This is a later built wall... (one of the 3 different walls/courtyards) and it is this shape to stand for the 'king's crown' so at this time... the castle was no longer under the rule of the church.

We were only able to go up to one wall and look out- there are 3 different levels.   Do you see the holes in the middle of those rectangle shapes at the top of the wall?  The typical way that kids/adults draw castle walls?   Well, the small opening inside the 'rectangle shapes'... is so that the archers could stand behind and aim at the enemy- but, the narrow opening meant that it was difficult for anyone on the ground to have a good chance of 'hitting/injuring/killing' anyone up on the castle wall.   I do have a photo that shows what these look like on the inside looking down.

This week, the second grade classes at my school got to go on a great field trip to a castle that is only about 25 minutes from the school.  How cool is that?  The castle is still standing and so are the castle walls surrounding the town that was part of the castle complex long ago.   I'll post some more photos of the castle on another blog post.