Castle Corvin, located in the center of the drab Romanian provincial city of Hunedoara (and sometimes called Hunedoara Castle), is one of the finest castles I have ever seen. Do you like castle porn? This one combines scale, creepiness, turrets, and that wonderful bridge across the moat.

This is a hard castle to beat, and I was lucky to be in position for this photo with my fisheye lens near sunset as a storm cleared. The only thing missing is the nestling dragon, snoring away on the top tower!

The photo doesn’t quite show the oddness of the castle’s location. There’s a bit of serious touristic development going on around the castle (a restaurant or two in renovated spaces), but mostly this is still a decaying industrial area, wrapped in a midsize city of communist-era block architecture. 

I really do think that a dragon or two (and maybe the “Mother of Dragons”) would totally add to the coolness factor!

Related story and images: Romania; Bran Castle; Two Views of Corvin Castle.