Have you seen these 11 'castles' in Florida? Here's where they're hiding

The U.S. may be nearly 250 years free from the rule of a monarch, but we still have castles. They aren’t castles that have housed generations of royalty or hold crown jewels of any kind, but they’re castles nonetheless.

Did you know that Florida has at least 11 castles and castle-like structures and eight of them are in one town? The oldest continuously inhabited European-established town in the U.S., to be exact.

Does Florida have any castles?

Castle Otttis, located on Florida A1A north of St. Augustine, photographed at dusk on Dec. 30, 1997.

Yes! Florida does have quite a few castles and castle-like buildings, specifically in St. Augustine, where the architecture still heavily reflects the Spanish rule that the town used to be under. But there are a few quirky castles (and even a "singing tower") outside of the oldest city as well.

Here’s our nonexhaustive list of castles and castle-like buildings in Florida:

• Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine
• Castle Otttis, St. Augustine
• Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine
• Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (Castle Warden), St. Augustine
• Flagler College (Ponce de Leon Hotel), St. Augustine
• Lightner Museum (Alcazar Hotel), St. Augustine
• Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Augustine
• Fort Matanzas, St. Augustine
• Solomon’s Castle, Ona
• Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales
• Coral Castle, Homestead

Honorable mentions:

• The Cinderella Castle
• The Harry Potter “castle” (Hogwarts at Universal)

How many castles are in St. Augustine, Florida?

5/5/00 - Bruce Lipsky/GO! staff - Fort Matanzas sits 14 miles sout of Castillo de San Marco at the Matanzas Inlet. The fort was to provide the southern most protection for St. Augustine.

There are at least eight known castle-like buildings in St. Augustine, which is also often referred to as the “Ancient City”, “Old City”, and “The Nation's Oldest City.”

Many of them have connections to Henry Flagler, a hotelier and railroad developer who was largely responsible for building out the city in the 1880s.

• Castillo de San Marcos
  • One of the most prominent landmarks in the city is the Castillo de San Marcos. The fort is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Construction began in 1671 and was completed in 1695 during the Spanish colonial period. Today, the site is managed by the National Park Service as a national monument. Visitors can explore the historic structure, walk through its interior, and observe scheduled historical re-enactments.
• Castle Otttis
  • Located just north of downtown St. Augustine along scenic A1A, Castle Otttis rises unexpectedly from the coastal landscape like a relic from medieval Europe. The castle structure was conceived not as a home or fortress, but as a landscape sculpture, an artistic tribute to the architecture of 1,000-year-old Irish castles. Construction began in 1984, and by 1988, its dramatic stone exterior was complete.

• Villa Zorayda
  • Constructed in 1883 by Franklin W. Smith, the Villa Zorayda is located in the heart of historic St. Augustine, Florida. The castle was inspired by the 13th-century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Spain to shape its architectural structure. Today, the Villa Zorayda Museum features a vast collection of antiquities from its previous owners.

• Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (Castle Warden)
  • Believe it or not, the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum was originally referred to as Castle Warden. This  Moorish Revival-style mansion was originally built in 1887 by William Warden, a partner of Henry Flagler and a key player in Florida’s Gilded Age expansion. According to the museum, Ripley was so fond of the hotel that after he died in 1949, his estate acquired the property. In December 1950, it opened as the first Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum in the United States. The museum remains open to the public, offering self-guided tours daily.

• Flagler College (Ponce de Leon Hotel)
  • The Ponce De Leon hotel, currently home to Flagler College, established in 1968, occupies a 19-acre campus in downtown St. Augustine. Its centerpiece is the former Ponce de León Hotel, a Spanish Renaissance-style building constructed in 1888. The hotel was designed by architects John Carrère and Thomas Hastings for Henry Morrison Flagler, a prominent industrialist and railroad developer. Guided tours of the historic building are offered Thursday through Sunday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m., departing from the rotunda.
• Lightner Museum (Alcazar Hotel)
  • The Lightner Museum was once the Alcazar Hotel, which was built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. Today, the museum features a collection of 19th-century fine and decorative arts. It is open to the public seven days a week. It offers self-guided tours, reserved group tours for adults and children, and demonstrations of antique mechanical musical instruments. The venue is also available for private events and weddings.

• Memorial Presbyterian Church
  • Memorial Presbyterian Church, was built in 1889 by Henry Morrison Flagler. The structure was dedicated in memory of Flagler’s daughter, Jennie Louise, and also reflects his religious background as the son of a Presbyterian minister. Flagler, known for his role in the development of Florida’s east coast, played a key part in the church’s construction. 

• Fort Matanzas
  • Fort Matanzas is a National Monument that protects a coquina watchtower completed in 1742, which was constructed to defend the southern approach to the Spanish military settlement of St. Augustine. The monument's outdoor areas, including those around the visitor center, are open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ferry service to the fort is available on a timed schedule from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

Can you still visit Coral Castle in Florida?

One of “south Florida's great head-scratching mysteries and attractions,” according to Visit Florida, is Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida. It looks like a castle, but is really a shrine of unrequited love. 

“The inspiration behind the construction of this legendary rock castle originated from a love story that began in Latvia when Edward Leedskalnin was set to marry Agnes Skuvst, who decided to call off their wedding on the eve of their nuptials,” Coral Castle’s website says. 

“A heartbroken Ed immigrated to North America. He arrived in New York aboard the SS Pennsylvania on April 6, 1912.”

In the 1920s, after re-settling in Florida, Ed began building his castle and didn’t stop adding to it until he passed away.

“Ed never stopped working on his castle and continued until his passing in 1951, when he put a sign on the door that simply read, ‘Going to the Hospital’ and took a bus to Jackson Memorial in Miami where he died 28 days later,” the website says.

And yes, you can still visit and tour Coral Castle today! The museum and sculpture garden is open on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Can you go inside the tower at Bok Tower Gardens?

Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, is a unique 250-acre garden and bird sanctuary that also boasts a “singing tower” that looks like something right out of the “Rapunzel” fairytale. The general public can’t go into the tower because it houses an instrument that’s only one of 185 of its kind in North America.

The gardens also boast a 1930s-era 20-room Mediterranean-style mansion called “El Retiro” that you can tour. But the castle-like musical tower is what attracts the likes of Atlas Obscura and people looking for nature with a touch of whimsy. The tower houses an instrument called a Carillon, one of only about 600 around the world and less than 200 in North America.

“A Carillon is an instrument of at least 23 tuned bells in chromatic series. Cast from bronze, which is composed mainly of copper and tin, and then specially tuned,” Bok Tower Gardens’ website says. “The bells are ‘hung dead’ meaning that the bells do not swing, only the clappers move. The instrument is fully mechanical (there are no electronics).”

The gardens and tower are named for Edward W. Bok, a Dutch immigrant, and his wife Mary Louise Curtis Bok. In the early 1920s, the couple decided to make a bird sanctuary after spending their winter staying near Lake Wales Ridge. Upon deciding on the location, Bok hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., a famous landscape architect and city planner known for his wildlife conservation efforts, to create the gardens that are still there today.

“Bok Tower Gardens was Edward Bok's gift to the American people. The property encompasses Iron Mountain, one of the highest points in Florida. The carillon tower was built atop the 295-foot high hill,”  Atlas Obscura says.

“Within the tower is one of the world’s finest carillons, a bell-based instrument, and the heaviest of all musical instruments. The site also houses the world's largest carillon library, with books, articles, recordings, music scores, slides, and photographs only on carillons.”

Bok Tower Gardens is open daily (with the exception of Christmas Day and Thanksgiving) from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with last admission at 5 p.m. 

What is the story behind Solomon's Castle in Florida?

Another quirky Florida landmark that started with one man (and is named for him) is Solomon’s Castle in Ona, Florida, about an hour east of Sarasota.

Howard Solomon was an artist from New York who came to Florida after a stint of living in the Bahamas in the early ‘70s. He began building the castle as his workshop and art studio. It eventually became a home for himself and several generations of his family, according to Sarasota Magazine. He lived there until his death in 2016.

“More than 300 pieces of his whimsical artwork, made mostly out of found objects and reclaimed materials, are on display throughout the castle, and his sense of humor is evident in the script that the tour guides still use to this day, which Solomon originally wrote with all his signature puns, jokes, and witticisms,” Sarasota Magazine says. There are also more than 80 interpretive stained glass windows throughout the castle.

Solomon’s home, galleries and workshop are all open to the public and available to tour. Solomon’s Castle is closed for the months of August and September, but will re-open Oct. 2. During its months of operation, Solomon’s Castle is closed on Mondays, only open from Tuesdays through Sundays, from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m.