Château de Brametourte, founded in the 11th century, surveys a stunning panorama across 20 hectares of parkland, woods & sun-flowered fields towards the Pyrenean peaks.
Situated in the south of France, close to the award winning bastide village of Lautrec, central to three UNESCO World Heritage sites, Toulouse, Albi and Carcassonne, the tranquil beauty of this ancient home of Barons & Viscounts, belies its turbulent past. The castle was immersed in the religious fervour of Cathars, Knights of the Templar & the Wars of Religion. Sieged during the 1580s, it fell into disrepair and was left forgotten and frozen in time.
Nearly half a millennium later, the Château has been traditionally and ecologically restored; pioneering one of France’s first, self-sustainable medieval castles.
References:Towering 52 meters above the sea, Bengtskär lighthouse is the tallest one in Scandinavia. The building started in in 1905 after the shipwreck of S/S Helsingfors and was completed in 1906. The lighthouse was designed by architect Florentin Granholm. On December a special petrol lantern, designed and built in Paris, was brought to Bengtskär and installed atop the tower.
German fleet bombarded Bengstkär in the First World War in 1914. Since the Gulf of Finland was heavily mined, it was not until 1919 that the surrounding seas were declared safe for shipping, that the light was lit again.
After the war the military value of Bengtskär increased as part of the defence system of independent Finland. In Second World War (1941) Soviet Union made a suprise attack to island. After a bloody battle, the small Finnish garrison emerged victorious. Intermittent repairs to the facility continued during the post-war period.