Built around 1060, the Château de Lormont probably saw Eleanor of Aquitaine stay here during her marriage to King Louis VII of France. The Prince of Aquitaine, also known as the Black Prince lived there. The archbishops of Bordeaux possessed the château in the 14th century. In 1453, negotiations to end the Hundred Years War also took place there. After having been successively destroyed and rebuilt, notably in 1626 by architect Henry Roche for the Cardinal Francis d'Escoubleau of Sourdis then to his brother Henri de Sourdis. The castle became national property in 1789.
Today the castle is private property. After a major renovation it was converted to house offices and also a restaurant.
Střekov Castle (Schreckenstein) is perched atop a cliff above the River Elbe, near the city of Ústí nad Labem. It was built in 1316 for John of Luxembourg, the father of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, to guard an important trade route to Germany. After changing hands several times, the castle was acquired by the Lobkowicz family in 1563. Its strategic importance led to occupations by Imperial Habsburg, Saxon, and Swedish forces during the Thirty Years' War, as well as successive sieges by Austrian and Prussian armies during the Seven Years' War.
Although Střekov Castle was heavily damaged during those conflicts and abandoned as a military installation by the end of the 18th century, the 1800s saw many poets and artists visiting the castle, drawn by a new trend of interest in romantic ruins.