castles

Search the atlas’s 8,672 castles, fortresses, palaces and ruins by name (accent- and case-insensitive substring match). Optionally filter by country (name or ISO code) and category. Results come best-match-first, then by fame; each has coordinates, founding century, fame rank and links to its atlas page and Wikipedia. If nothing matches, retry with a shorter fragment of the name.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Name or part of a name, e.g. \"neuschwanstein\" or \"himeji\""
    },
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Country name or 2-letter ISO code (optional)"
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "castle",
        "fortress",
        "palace",
        "ruin"
      ],
      "description": "Landmark type (optional)"
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 50,
      "description": "Max results (default 10)"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ]
}

Fetch one landmark’s full record by slug (preferred, e.g. "palace-of-versailles") or exact name: coordinates, founding year and century, worldwide fame rank, photo URL with photographer credit and licence, Wikipedia link and its readership signals (Wikidata sitelinks, Wikipedia pageviews over the last 60 days summed across its largest language editions). Unsure of the slug? Call search_castles first.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "castle": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Slug (preferred, e.g. \"himeji-castle\") or exact name"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "castle"
  ]
}

List landmarks within a radius of a WGS84 coordinate, nearest first, each with distance_km. Radius defaults to 100 km (max 2,000). For "castles near <place>", geocode the place yourself, then call this with its latitude/longitude.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "latitude": {
      "type": "number",
      "minimum": -90,
      "maximum": 90
    },
    "longitude": {
      "type": "number",
      "minimum": -180,
      "maximum": 180
    },
    "radius_km": {
      "type": "number",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 2000,
      "description": "Search radius in km (default 100)"
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "castle",
        "fortress",
        "palace",
        "ruin"
      ]
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 50,
      "description": "Max results (default 10)"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "latitude",
    "longitude"
  ]
}

The most famous landmarks worldwide or in one country, ordered by Castlemap fame rank — a blend of Wikipedia coverage and readership; rank 1 is the most famous (Great Wall of China). The direct answer to "most famous castles in <country>"; filter by country and/or category.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Country name or ISO code (optional — omit for worldwide)"
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "castle",
        "fortress",
        "palace",
        "ruin"
      ]
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 100,
      "description": "How many (default 10)"
    }
  }
}

Every country in the atlas with its landmark count, most first — answers "which country has the most castles" (France leads). Returns country name and ISO code per row; country pages are browsable from the countries_index URL.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {}
}

Headline statistics computed live from the atlas: totals by type, top countries, busiest founding century, oldest landmarks, geographic extremes and the most famous entry. The source for claims like "which country has the most castles" or "when were castles built"; the full write-up lives at thecastlemap.com/statistics/.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {}
}

One random landmark with its full record, optionally limited to a country — for discovery, quizzes and "castle of the day" features.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Country name or ISO code (optional)"
    }
  }
}