I'm the Queen of the Castle Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alcázar of Segovia

The imposing medieval castle known as Alcázar (Arabic for "fortress") dominates the Spanish city of Segovia, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. As its name suggests, it was originally built by the Moors of the Almoravid dynasty on the foundations of a Roman fort ("castrum"), probably in the late 11th century. Its earliest mention, however, dates from 1120, when Segovia had already been conquered by the Christians.

The kings of Castile added new parts to the castle - most significantly during the reign of the House of Trastámara in the 14th and 15th century. In particular, King John II of Castile, Isabella I's father, built the tower that now bears his name. On 12 December 1474, following the news of the death of King Henry IV of Castile, Isabella (who was his half-sister) took refuge within the walls of the castle, and was crowned Queen of Castile and León the next day.

With its four towers, massive walls and deep moat, the Alcázar of Segovia is an imposing sight. Its interior features a luxurious combination of Mudéjar (Iberian Muslim), Gothic and Renaissance elements - the latter added during the extensive renovations conducted in the mid-16th century by King Philip II of Spain. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, the Alcázar of Segovia is now a museum and a military archive.

Answer: Ducal Palace of Mantua

The city of Mantua (Mantova in Italian) is located in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. Its Palazzo Ducale, built between the 13th and the 17th century by the city's ruling Gonzaga family, is one of Italy's most significant Renaissance palaces, and the sixth-largest palace in Europe - containing more than 500 rooms, seven gardens and eight courtyards. The most famous of the palace's rooms is the Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber), decorated by magnificent frescoes by Venetian painter Andrea Mantegna that include a stunning illusionistic ceiling.

One of the older sections of the palace, named Corte Vecchia ("Old Court"), contains the private apartment of Isabella d'Este, wife to Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga, one of the most influential women of the Renaissance. Portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci and Titian, Isabella was not only a patron of literature and the arts and a skilled musician, but also very influential in the fields of fashion and fine cuisine. Her "studiolo" was her private retreat, a place where the Marchioness could read, write letters, and display her large collection of ancient and modern art. Sadly, most of the contents of the studiolo were sold or dispersed: a few of them can be admired in some of the world's foremost museums.

The Palazzo Ducale is now a museum owned by the Italian State, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mantua and Sabbioneta, inscribed in the list in 2008.

Answer: Hever Castle

Located in the village of the same name, in the English county of Kent, Hever Castle was originally built in 1270 as a gatehouse and walled bailey. In 1462, it was purchased by Geoffrey Boleyn, a wealthy merchant who had served as Mayor of London a few years earlier, and converted into a manor house in the Tudor style. His grandson, Thomas Boleyn, inherited the castle in 1505, and lived there with his wife and three children, George, Mary and Anne. The latter would marry Henry VIII in 1533, and be executed three years later. The king came into possession of the castle after Thomas Boleyn's death in 1539, and gave it to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, as part of the settlement that followed the annulment of their brief marriage.

Purchased by the wealthy Astor family in 1903, Hever Castle - which had fallen into disrepair - was extensively restored and expanded, with the addition of an Italian garden containing numerous statues and a quaint Tudor-style village. Now owned by a private company, the castle and its beautiful grounds are popular tourist attractions, featuring Henry VIII's bedchamber, a collection of paintings and other Tudor memorabilia, as well as a display of torture instruments. It has been used as a filming location, and hosts a wide range of events during the summer season.

Answer: Holyrood Palace

Also known as Palace of Holyroodhouse, Holyrood Palace is one of Edinburgh's most famous landmarks. This magnificent royal residence stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile, the city's main thoroughfare, which connects the palace with Edinburgh Castle. First built by James IV of Scotland in 1501-1505 in the Gothic style, the palace is adjacent to the ruins of the medieval Holyrood Abbey; its name ("holy cross") is believed to have been derived from a relic of the True Cross owned by Saint Margaret of Scotland.

The luxuriously appointed palace, which even included a menagerie on its grounds, was expanded by James V, who added the tower that bears his name - now the oldest surviving part of the building. Mary, Queen of Scots, James V's daughter and heir, occupied the royal apartments in the tower upon her return to Scotland from France in 1561. Mary lived there until 1567, when she was forced to abdicate after her marriage to Lord Bothwell. Holyrood Palace was almost completely rebuilt in 1671-1678 during the reign of Charles II, Mary's great-grandson; it was designed by Scottish architect Sir William Bruce in the Baroque style.

When no members of the British royal family are in residence, Mary's apartments and the State Apartments are open to the public. Holyrood Palace is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, designated in 1995.

Answer: Château de Chenonceau

Located near the village of Chenonceaux in France's famed Loire Valley, the Château de Chenonceau is an unforgettable sight, with its elegant turrets and a gallery built over a bridge spanning the Cher, a left tributary of the Loire. The original Gothic building was erected in the 1430s by nobleman Jean Marques on the ruins of an older castle; in 1513, most of it (except the keep) was demolished to be rebuilt in a more modern style.

In 1547, King Henry II gave the château to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers - who had the arched bridge built to connect the castle with the opposite bank of the Cher, as well as extensive flower and vegetable gardens. Upon Henry II's death, his widow, Catherine de' Medici, did not waste any time in retaliating against her rival by forcing her to exchange her beloved Chenonceau with another castle. The château became the notorious queen's favourite residence, and she spent a fortune on it, adding new gardens and the gallery over the bridge.

Damaged by bombs during WWII, Chenonceau was restored in the 1950s by its current owners, the Menier family of chocolatiers. Not surprisingly, this spectacular château is the second-most visited in France after the Palace of Versailles. Along with other celebrated castles such as Amboise, Blois and Chambord, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes, designated in 2000.

Answer: Alexander Palace

Located near the town of Tsarskoye Selo, about 48 km (30 mi) south of St Petersburg, Alexander Palace was commissioned by Tsarina Catherine II of Russia (known as Catherine the Great) for her favourite grandson, the future Tsar Alexander I, on the occasion of his marriage in 1793. The palace, designed by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi, and built between 1792 and 1796 in the Neoclassical style, became the summer residence of the heirs to the Russian throne. The last Romanov emperor, Nicholas II, was born there in 1868; in 1905, he chose the palace as his and his family's residence because of its safer and more secluded location, away from the turmoil of St Petersburg.

Alexander Palace is a building of harmonious proportions, surrounded by a large park. Before Nicholas and his wife Alexandra (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) moved there, the tsarina had much of the interior redecorated in the Art Nouveau style, which in Russia was not as fashionable as in other parts of Europe. Famous examples of this unconventional remodeling are Alexandra's Mauve Room, the New Study, and the stunning Maple Room.

After years of renovation, the east wing of Alexander Palace - which contains the private apartments of the ill-fated Nicholas and Alexandra - reopened to visitors in 2021. The palace is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, inscribed in the list in 1991.

Answer: Château de Malmaison

When, in 1799, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte's first wife, bought the Château de Malmaison - located about 15 km (9.3 mi) west of Paris - the large estate cost over 300,000 francs, a huge sum at that time. The estate owes its name ("bad house" in French) to its reputation as a den of outlaws in the Middle Ages. Though a manor house already existed on the site in the 14th century, the current building, surrounded by woods and meadows, dates from the 17th century.

Napoleon hired architects Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine to conduct extensive renovations. The château became the main residence of the Bonapartes; in 1800-1802, along with the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, it also served as the official seat of the French government. After her divorce from Napoleon in 1810, Joséphine made the castle her permanent home. She had already invested a lot of time and money in expanding the gardens, where she built a greenhouse and a heated orangery for the cultivation of rare plants, and assembling a menagerie of exotic animals. Malmaison, however, is famous for its magnificent rose garden, the apple of the former Empress's eye, where Joséphine grew 250 varieties of roses. She died there in 1814, at the age of 50.

Fully restored in the early 20th century, the Château of Malmaison now belongs to the French state, and hosts a national museum dedicated to the Napoleonic era.

Answer: Miramare Castle

As its name ("sea view" in Italian) suggests, Miramare Castle stands a spur of limestone that overlooks the Gulf of Trieste, a shallow bay at the northernmost end of the Adriatic Sea. The castle was built in 1856-1860 by order of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg-Lorraine, younger brother of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, who had decided to move to Trieste after being appointed Commander in Chief of the Austrian Navy in 1854. Maximilian hired Austrian architect Carl Junker to design his new home in the eclectic style that was fashionable in much of Western Europe at the time; Junker also designed the large park surrounding the house, which reflected the archduke's love of nature. Maximilian's private study reproduced the stern wardroom of his warship, the frigate "Novara".

While the castle was being built, Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, resided in a smaller building named il Castelletto, located within the park. They were able to move to their apartments in the castle at the end of 1860. Less than four years later, in the spring of 1864, the couple sailed to Mexico, where Maximilian was crowned emperor. He never returned to Miramare, as he was executed in 1967. Charlotte, who had been in Europe at the time of her husband's death, suffered a mental breakdown, and was imprisoned in the castle for several months before she was finally allowed to return to Belgium, where she spent the rest of her life.

Miramare Castle and its park are now a museum owned by the Italian State. Italian poet Giosuè Carducci, who was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote the ode "Miramar", dedicated to the tragic story of Maximilian and Charlotte, after visiting the castle in 1878.

Answer: Achilleion

In 1889, Elisabeth of Austria, the consort of Emperor Franz Joseph I, was prostrate with grief after the tragic death of her son, Crown Prince Rudolf. A couple of years earlier, Austrian consul Alexander von Warsberg, who the empress had appointed her "travel marshal", had bought a plot of land on her behalf on the island of Corfu (one of the Ionian Islands), and developed the concept of a palace dedicated to Greek hero Achilles. Designed by Italian architect Raffaele Caritto, the palace - located near the village of Gastouri, with a panoramic view of the Ionian Sea - was meant as a homage to Greek art and culture, which Elisabeth greatly admired.

The Achilleion was completed in 1891, and richly decorated with statues and paintings inspired by Greek mythology and history. It became Elisabeth's summer retreat, where she could try to forget the tragedies that had torn her life apart. After her tragic death in 1898, the palace and its gardens were acquired by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who conducted extensive renovations. At the end of WWII, the palace became the property of the Greek state, but was badly damaged during WWII.

Now restored to its former glory, the Achilleion is a museum managed by the Hellenic Tourist Development Company. In recent years, it has also been used as a venue for conferences and diplomatic meetings.

Answer: Osborne House

In 1845, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Osborne House - located in East Cowes, on the Isle of Wight - from its owner, Lady Isabella Blachford. However, despite its scenic location with beautiful views of the Solent (the strait separating the island from Great Britain), the three-storey Georgian house was too small for the queen and her consort, so it was demolished to make way for a larger building. The new Osborne House was designed by Prince Albert himself, together with famed London architect Thomas Cubitt, in the Italian Renaissance style, complete with two belvedere towers. The Prince also contributed his knowledge of forestry and landscaping to the laying out of the house's grounds.

Built between 1845 and 1851, Osborne House became the royal couple's summer retreat, where they could find some peace away from court life. While their principal apartments were richly appointed and decorated with gifts from other European royal families, those on the first floor were intended for family use, and thus kept simpler and more comfortable. The most striking feature of Osborne House's ground floor is the luxurious Durbar Room, built for state functions and decorated in Indian style. After Prince Albert's death in 1861, Queen Victoria continued to visit the house on a regular basis, and died there on 22 January 1901.

Listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England, Osborne House has been managed by English Heritage since 1986, and is open to the public. The exhibit include the Queen's private beach with her personal bathing machine.