1. Boldt Castle on Heart Island, New York
Valentine’s Day 1905 was to be the day George Boldt gave his wife the Thousand Islands five-acre Boldt Castle farm. As a testament to his affection for his beloved, Louise, he had designed this medieval and victorian architecture that influenced the castle. The Boldt Castle was to be an 11-building complex, the biggest on the Thousand Islands.
2. Taj Mahal in Agra, India
The Taj Mahal was constructed for love, but tragically as a mausoleum and lost in the memory of love. After his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died, Emperor Shah Jahan began to build a tomb that would be the most resplendent monument man has ever built for a woman.
3. Swallow’s Nest Castle: “Castle of Love” in Crimean, Ukraine
The Swallow’s Nest, built-in 1912 near Yalta in the south of Crimea, is one of the most romantic Neo-Gothic-style castles. The Swallow ‘s Nest Castle was initially dubbed “The Castle of Love,” but the romantically titled “Love Castle” started as a wooden cottage of modest origins
4. Dobroyd Castle in Todmorden, England
Dobroyd Castle at Todmorden started as a love vow and developed into a house for honeymoons. John Fielden, the son of a wealthy industrialist, had fallen in love with Ruth Stansfield, a local weaver girl. Fielden suggested to her but she said if he promised to build her a castle on a hill, she would marry him.
5. Kellie’s Castle in Batu Gajah, Malaysia
Kellie’s Castle is Malaysia’s oldest castle and built for love by Scottish planter William Kellie Smith for his wife Agnes Smith. She missed home tremendously and had also blessed him with a son. Construction began in 1915, combining three architectural styles – Greco-Roman, Moorish, and Indian.
6. Stratford Castle in Durban, South Africa
Stratford Castle is now located within Camelot Residential and Golf Estate in Durban, South Africa, but it also began as a kiss of true love inspiration. The cornerstone of the Castle on the north wing is graved with the immortal words of Sir Walter Raleigh: “But true love is a lasting fire, ever burning in the mind; never sick, never old, never dead; never turning from itself.”
7. Mystery Castle in Phoenix, Arizona
Mystery Castle is a for a princess built castle. It sounds like a story of magic love, but it started out on a sad note of despair. Boyce Gulley left his Seattle home, after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, sick at heart. He slipped away from his wife and daughter, who he didn’t want to see him die, and started one of the most beautiful yet strange love stories of all recorded
8. Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida
The day before their wedding a man called Ed Leedskalnin was left by his fiancé in the early 1920s. Heartbroken, yet intent on leaving the mark of his undying love, Leedskalnin has worked on his tribute to his lost love for 28 years. Working only at night, managing to move tons of stone, he built an intricate and stunning coral castle for his lost beloved “Sweet Sixteen.”
9. Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California
This California “Home” is a tale of passion and loss, built less for the passion of her own life in an attempt to honor her beloved husband and more. The widow of gun magnate William Winchester, Sarah Winchester, believed that her life was in danger and that she was haunted by the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles. Her master building plan was only to remain constant Building so that she might be safe and live forever, or for as long as the house was built.
10. Prasat Hin Phimai in Phimai, Thailand
A prince named Pajitt begins the Legend of Pajitt and Orapima. The king wanted his son to take a bride, so Prince Pajitt toured the country for months before he found a light-skinned female pregnant. He saw her as his soulmate but he could not marry a widow. Pajitt decided instead to marry the unborn child when she, Orapima, was 16 years old.
