Corvin Castle

Hunedoara, Romania, Romania

---

Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania, is one of Europe's largest and most striking Gothic-Renaissance fortresses, built starting in 1446 by John Hunyadi (Voivode of Transylvania) atop a 14th-century stone keep above the Zlaşti River as both a luxurious residence and impregnable defense against Ottoman invasions. Expanded by his son Matthias Corvinus with ornate features like the Knights' Hall for feasts, Diet Hall for ceremonies, a 30-meter-deep well dug by condemned Turkish prisoners, and the Bear Pit where captives met grisly ends, it boasts 42 rooms, 14 towers (including the spiked Mace Tower), drawbridges, and intricate stone carvings across its multicolored-tiled roofs. Falling into ruin after the 16th century, it was restored in the 17th-19th centuries and now stands as a major tourist site—one of Romania's "Seven Wonders"—with legends linking Vlad the Impaler to brief imprisonment there amid its brooding Transylvanian atmosphere.