In 1066 the Duke of Normandy, historically famous as William the Conqueror, won the Battle of Hastings, and along with it came the throne of England. In order to place the island under the rule of Normandy the king led a battery of military campaigns and built fortified castles. One of the most impressive among these is the White Tower, which is the foundation of today’s Tower of London. Nowadays it is popular for being a gloomy and scary dungeon and a former execution spot, the tower complex used to function as a castle, armory, mint and a menagerie. William invited the bishop of Rochester Gundulf to design the tower on the bank of the Thames, and the construction works started in 1078. This large rectangular stone fortress, first of its kind in England and one of the largest in Europe, was completed in the beginning of the 1290, after William’s death. The dimensions of the tower are 33 to 36 meters and it is high almost 30 meters, with the corner turrets reaching even higher. In the foundation the walls are 4,6 m thick thinning as they go up to some 3,4 m. In the end of 17th century the great English architect Christopher Wren replaced the narrow crevices along the façade with true windows. It was him who gave the order that the building would not be whitewashed. This three-storey building offers all the comfort of a royal residence. The royal suits and the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist are located on the second and the third floor.

The Paris Cathedral “Saint Virgin Mary”, also called “Notre Dame”, is one of the most brilliant symbols of the French capital. The construction of the church started in the far 1163 and was completed in 1345. The extremely beautiful construction of the frontage, decorated with many sculptures makes it one of the most beautiful architectural monuments of the world. The Cathedral “Notre Dame” (translated literally from French “Our Lady”) is built on La Cité Island, over the fundamentals of an ancient Roman church. The idea of its construction belongs to the Paris bishop Maurice de Sully, who financed this grandiose project with funds provided by the ministry, the king, the nobility and the lower middle-class. In the course of nearly two centuries many architects and thousands of workers have been building stone by stone one of the greatest masterpiece of Gothic architecture. It is long 130 m, wide 50 m and its three-story square towers are 69 m high, and the crown rise of the cathedral vault reaches 96 m. The bells are situated in the south part and the biggest one weighs 15 tons. The “Notre Dame” Cathedral can take 9000 people; it has a wonderful organ and perfect acoustics. The Cathedral is a silent witness of many important events from Paris life like for example the crown procession of Napoleon Bonaparte I, the funeral of General De Gal and others.

The castle Alcazar de Segovia was designed to be a fortress. It is one of the most significant and best preserved ones in Spain. It is situated at a strategic location: immediately on top of the wild crags, incised therein as a stem of a ship, erected in the riverbeds of the rivers Erezma and Clamores. Its origin is unclear: probably Roman, and perhaps even earlier. The eldest proof for its existence is a document dating back to the year 1122.