At Dresden there is a famous castle, the Royal Palace, founded in 1530, and enlarged early in the 18th century, with extensive altera tions during recent years. Its Griines Tor is the highest structure in Dresden (331 feet). The original staircase, towers at the four cor ners and the gallery over the gate (1549-51) still stand. The Palace is a veritable museum of the history of art, particularly of the art of Dresden, famous as the centre of the por celain industry, and the Green Vault, on the ground floor, contains one of the richest col lections of the goldsmith's and other handi craft of the Renaissance and later In Berlin, .the Schloss, or residence of the Kaiser, is representative of the mediaeval castle changed into a palace. The original Schloss was built by the Great Elector Frederick II (1443-51), was altered (1698-1716) and en larged until to-day it is 650 feet in length by 380 in width. In the reign of Wilhelm II it became the residence of the reigning sovereign. Its decorations and appointments are in keep ing with the purpose for which it is used. It represents the work of two of Germany's greatest architects, Schhiter and von Goethe. The western part is an imitation of the trium phal arch of Septimius Severus at Rome. Other royal residences at Berlin are the Palace of the Crown Prince, the Palace of Emperor Wil helm I, the Palace of Prince Frederick Henry of Prussia, that of Prince Frederick Leopold, erected 1737, and the Palace of the Princesses, connected with that of the Crown Prince by an arch over Oberwall-Strasse.
At Potsdam, Versailles of Prussia;' is the Palace of aSans-Souci," erected by Knobelsdorff in 1745-47 for Frederick the Great. It is copied after the Palace of Ver sailles. It was here that Frederick the Great spent the greater part of his life, the rooms and objects connected with his history remain ing as he left them. In addition, Frederick built a New Palace (1763-69), a magnificent building with 200 rooms, now the summer resi dence of the Kaiser.
Wherever one goes in Germany, he finds evidences of mediaeval life in the castles that served their day, are now ruins or intact as fortifications or adapted to residential or mu seum and civic purposes. With few excep tions, the public is admitted at stated times to these relics of the past, sometimes free, but generally for a small fee used for their upkeep.
In France, feudalism took deep root, and everywhere is evidence of its existence in the castles or their ruins to be found in every city and hamlet. Even later, when kingcraft had subdued the barons, these castles became fortresses in the civil and religious wars that disturbed the country for three centuries, and later yet when the Crown of England was at tempting to keep its hold on Normandy and France, and quarter was a thing unasked for.
As to their form, the castles of France were very similar to those of Germany, with the exception that, save in exceptional instances, the territory to be protected by them was without the natural fastnesses and barriers of the territory adjacent to the German castles. Architecturally they show more of the Roman and Byzantine influence. What is reputed to have been the greatest example of the mediae val castle was the Castle of Coucy (1230-42) built by the Seigneurs of Coucy, near Soissons. Guarding the castle and covering an area of more than 10,000 square yards, the donjon towered 210 feet above its walls, at the base being 34 feet thick. This castle was destroyed
in 1916 by Germany in the European War. Sec ond to it in France is the Castle of Vincennes, in the park of the same name, just outside the fortifications of Paris. Built originally in 1137 by Louis le Jenne, it was demolished by Philippe de Valois in 1333, and the present foundations were laid. It was built in a rect angle, 1,200 by 672 feet, and flanked by nine square towers. It contained a donjon, a cita del and a prison, notable for the prisoners that it has held — Mazarin, Diderot, Mirabeau, Henri IV, the Princes of Conde, Cardinal de Retz and others equally famous. In 1784, after the publication of Mirabeau's "Essai sur les lettres de cachet," it ceased to' be a state prison, and fell into decay after the Revolution. In 1818, most of its old towers were torn down and the castle was turned into an arsenal. At present it is a fortification. The buttressed entrance tower and the donjon, repaired in part, still stand intact, the latter 115 feet high. The donjon is isolated from the rest of the castle wall, with which it is connected by drawbridges over a deep moat. It is in the middle of the court, has four towers, and stands four stories above ground, access from floor to floor being by spiral stairways in each of the towers. Its architecture is Gothic, the large central room (30 feet square) on each floor being vaulted, with a supporting column in the centre. Its walls are 17 feet in thick ness.
Northwest of Paris, near Les Andelys, are the ruins of the Chateau Gaillard, built by Richard Cceur-de-Lion, and finished in one year. On a high cliff overlooking the Seine, it was erected to control the navigation of this river and to protect Normandy against the French monarchs. It was considered impreg nable to military attack, but after a siege of six months by Philip Augustus starvation forced its defenders to capitulate. Lest it fall into the hands of a too powerful enemy, Henri IV in 1603 destroyed it with several other castles belonging to Norman barons. For its total demolition, however, 16 years were re quired, and even to-day its ruins appear for midable from the Seine. It is famous in art from a painting made by Turner. At Dieppe stands the Tour de Jeanne d'Arc, the remain ing relic of the citadel in which the Maid of Orleans was tried and condemned. It was erected by Philip Augustus in 1204. The tower in which Jeanne d'Arc was imprisoned was demolished in 1809. At Dieppe also are ruins of two other castles, one the "Castle," occupy ing a commanding position on a precipitous cliff overlooking the sea, erected in 1433 as a defense against the English. Sixty-four years later it, with the entire town, was destroyed by the bombardment of the English fleet. The other is the Castle of Argues, famous as the scene of victory of Henri IV over the League in 1589. The Castle of Gaillon, erected in 1500 and destroyed during the Revolution, stands in the town of the same name, its partly destroyed ruins now used as a prison. In its day it was considered as one of the finest in Normandy, its architecture being of such excellence that the lofty facade has been re moved and •is now in the court of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Paris. This castle was erected by Pierre Fain, one of the greatest architects of the 15th century, for the Cardinal d'Amboise, Minister of Louis XII, and a patron of the Renaissance in France, and is of mixed Gothic and Renaissance style.