10 Beautiful Castles in Unexpected Places

In its 1,000-year history, this Gothic villa on Lago d'Iseo's waters has been inhabited by an eclectic cast of characters, including nuns, royalty, a naval officer, and a hermit. The home and its island are now privately owned but still viewable by boat or Jet Ski.

Along the coast of the Black Sea, this neo-Gothic wonder appears to balance precipitously on its cliff. The castle seems to be impervious to nature, though: In 1927, it survived a catastrophic earthquake with barely a crack.

Pieces of the Dunluce ruins in Northern Ireland date back to the 12th century, and its terrifying cliffside location tells a tale of tragedy: Local legend has it that at one point, the kitchen toppled into the sea, leaving just one survivor clinging to the only wall that remained on land.

Predjama, a 700-year-old fortress built flush into a hillside, is particularly impenetrable (but perfect to visit). In 1991, a treasure chest was found beneath the cellar floor, and some say that untold riches remain hidden in the castle walls.

Step aside, Cinderella. This unfinished, 90,000-square-foot, Versailles-inspired manse in Florida features 11 kitchens, a roller rink, and other palatial amenities. When the housing bubble burst, construction halted and the owners were forced to abandon the home, Marie Antoinette-style. Now this stateside Versailles is on the market for a cool $100 million.

This rocky island 400 yards off the coast of Cornwall has a continental counterpart: Mont-Saint Michel, its sister monastery in Normandy. While not a traditional castle, St. Michael's Mount is the ancestral seat of a baron. And with its ultra-exclusive seabound location (reachable by foot at low tide or by boat), this castle appears to float on the horizon.

This Death Valley home has a made-for-Hollywood history involving wealthy, well-meaning patrons and a con-man cowboy named Walter Scott. Now operated by the National Park Service (NPS), the ranch and its grounds are open for visitors, who must make a brave three-hour trek through the burning desert.

Playwright and actor William Gillette, famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes, built this remote stone castle in 1914 (and in his will, forbade any "blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded" to own it). The eccentric home is filled with oddities like surveillance mirrors, wooden locks, and 47 completely unique interior doors.

A poured-concrete castle in the Philadelphia 'burbs is certainly odd, but odder still are the rumored hauntings at Fonthill: It has been said that the ghost of a housekeeper still wanders the estate. For more earthly visitors, Fonthill, now part of the Mercer Museum, welcomes guests to peruse its former owner's elaborate collection of art and artifacts.

This Calvert-Vaux-designed mini-castle was built as an open-air observatory for Victorian passersby. Now recast as a visitors' center, Belvedere still boasts what some consider the best views of Central Park and its sprawling Great Lawn.

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