The Château de Beaulon is a privately owned château located in Saint Dizant du Gua. The gardens, and landscape park, a Monument historique, are open to the public.
The château was built circa 1480 as a residence for the Bishops of Bordeaux. The château has both stone Gothic and Renaissance style facades. It is presently owned by the royal family of Abu Dhabi.
The present gardens were created beginning in 1942. The park includes a French formal garden around the château, and an English landscape garden. The garden is listed by the Committee of Parks and Gardens of the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France.
A major feature of the landscape park are the Fontaines Bleues, natural springs whose waters are an unusual brilliant hue of blue. There is also a round dovecote structure with a conical roof, dating from 1740, with fifteen hundred nesting holes.
The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.