Archinect - News

The Sicilian mansion from Godfather III is up for sale

2022-01-13T19:16:00-05:00

The opulent Sicilian castle featured in the third installment of The Godfather franchise has just gone on the market. For a cool €6m prospective buyers can expect 22 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a wine cellar, an artist’s studio, a library, a private chapel and 2.1 acres of parkland.

The fate of the sizable art collection located inside the house remains an important (and much more valuable) question as so far only the in situ works that exist in the house have been confirmed included in the sale. The manse was commissioned as a collector’s de facto private museum by a Baron at the end of the 19th century. The collection reportedly includes lots of Byzantine artifacts and several paintings by the Baron’s grandson Paul, who was a post-War artist of some repute within the country.

The 43,000-square-foot Neo-Gothic residence has 22 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a library, small chapel, and wine cellar brought together by a central marble staircase. The property includes a two-acre park and is set amongst a small coastal town overlooking the Ionian Sea.

"It is a property that expresses a strong character and enjoys enormous potential, for its history, its location, its architecture and its spaces," the head of Residential Italy Diletta Giorgolo wrote in an email to Travel...

George R.R. Martin wants to build a castle in his backyard to the dismay of his neighbors

2020-09-10T12:13:00-04:00

George R.R. Martin, creator of Game of Thrones, has submitted plans to build a real-life 'castle' in his Santa Fe backyard. Neighbors, however, are refusing to bend the knee. The Daily Mail reports the author describing the structure as a "seven-sided library" in a planning application submitted to the City of Santa Fe.

Plans submitted to the City of Santa Fe

See more from R.R. Martin's planning application submitted to the city, in the gallery of images below.

Screenshot of Winterfell. Game of Thrones.

The GoT inspired project features a 27-foot-high tower, which seems to be the point of contention for the creator's neighbors. "We thought it was Winterfell when we first saw the plans," one of Martin's neighbors jokingly remarked. "All it was missing is Jon Snow and a couple of dragons."

R.R. Martin lives in a surprisingly normal house in a modest suburb of Santa Fe, as seen below.

George R.R. Martin's Santa Fe residence. Image from Google Street View.

Check out the castle-themed mai...

Burj Al Babas, the city of empty castles

2019-01-12T18:42:00-05:00

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage -- hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.

A city of castles has sprung up in Northwestern Turkey. Burj Al Babas, the 732-home and shopping center development built by the Sarot Group, cost a whopping $205 million and may not be inhabited in the foreseeable future. In recent years, the country's high inflation and currency crisis have negatively impacted its housing market. While investors felt secure investing in developments like Burj Al Babas only a few short years ago, the current economic climate is now given an image in the eerily empty development of Burj Al Babas.

World Monuments Fund pledges to help restore earthquake-damaged Kumamoto Castle Town

2017-08-15T13:05:00-04:00

The historic Japanese city of Kumamoto, famous for its picturesque 15th century castle, experienced a damaging earthquake in 2016, leading to the demolition of several of its historic buildings. The World Monument Fund has pledged to help restore the remaining older buildings (although it should be noted that the current iteration of the castle is a late 20th century concrete copy, retaining only a few of the original wooden walls). According to a press release:

About 350 historic buildings essential to the town’s historic streetscape sustained damage in the 2016 earthquake. Some were demolished in the aftermath of the disaster, leaving many of the approximately 300 structures that remained at great risk of demolition. WMF initially joined ICOMOS Japan in an on-site field study in May 2016 to understand priorities and conservation needs, and will now assist KMT [Kumamoto Machinami Trust] in their restoration efforts.

This contemporary medieval-style castle is being built using only medieval tools

2017-05-23T13:13:00-04:00

Funded mainly by tourist dollars, the French site of Guedelon has been building a medieval-style castle for the last 17 years using only the technology and tools that would have been available circa 1245. The result, which has created a living lab of craftspeople visited by curious schoolchildren, is helping archaeologists to understand not only what it was like to live and work in the Middle Ages, but also is reviving physical crafting techniques that are increasingly archaic, if not forgotten, in a digital age. In addition to inducing a desire to visit wine country, this video explains how the castle design itself was conceived:

Architect behind Matrera Castle restoration argues criticism "is prejudiced"

2016-03-10T18:22:00-05:00

A recently completed restoration project [of Spain's Matrera Castle] has provoked an incredulous reaction from some locals and a Spanish conservation group... However, Carlos Quevedo, the architect who oversaw the restoration of the castle...pointed out that the project had been painstaking, professional, and legal...'I do think that some basic, accurate information can help avoid some of the prejudices that spring from a simple image.'

Spain is having another cultural kerfuffle over the recent restoration of the ancient Matrera Castle in Cadiz. While locals and preservation groups are mocking and criticizing the makeover, architect Carlos Quevedo says that it was done to prevent further structural collapse.

More about historic preservation:

As Ho Chi Minh City develops rapidly, historic colonial architecture comes under threat

Has preservation become too conservative and elitist?

Another bittersweet look at Hotel Okura's legacy, as redesign is underway

The fantasy castles of Belarus' nouveau riche

2015-01-07T14:13:00-05:00

Driving through the suburbs of Minsk, photographer Vitus Saloshanka, a Belorusian native who moved away in 2001, was struck by the way in which familiar places had changed. “I saw something I’ve never seen in Minsk before,” he says. “Contrast, social differences.” [...] “The houses represent a new sense of self-awareness in Belorusian society as well as a search for a new cultural identity. Who are we? Where are our roots? How is this expressed in the form of architecture?”

Chinese art institute resembles Hogwarts Castle

2014-12-15T14:06:00-05:00

The Hebei Academy of Fine Arts in China’s Hebei Province has constructed a new campus in Xinle City that, rather than resembling local architecture, adheres more to Gothic and European styles. Specifically, it bears a striking resemblance to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. [...] But the new building is actually called “Cinderella’s Castle,” and was modeled on structures from medieval Europe. Unfortunately, the building has little to do with Cinderella or Hogwarts.

Previously: Chinese Colleges Are Trying to Look Like the Ivy League

Colossal Bavarian Castle Set To Open In Dalian, China

2014-05-21T13:47:00-04:00

Luxury hotel chain Starwood Hotels unveiled the upcoming opening of The Castle Hotel in Dalian, a major seaport city in China’s northeastern Liaoning province. This makes it one of the various examples of European-inspired architecture sprouting across China in recent years. Starwood Hotels announced in a press release of the opening of The Castle Hotel later this year, when it is done with its final stages of interior renovation.

Previously: Chinese secretly copy Austrian town