Castle Documentaries
We make castle documentaries, and nearly every one of them starts in the same place: with the claim a castle is best known for. Sometimes that claim survives contact with the record, and sometimes it does not. This page leaves the answers to the films and tells you where to find them.
Each country has its own page, with a short introduction to every film: our German castle documentaries, our French castle documentaries, our Scottish castle documentaries and our English castle documentaries. Between them they visit castles, palaces and an abbey, and a new film joins them every week. Every one is free to watch, none of them asks you for an account, and each has a fully cited written guide on this site standing behind it, so you can check the work rather than take our word for it.
How These Documentaries Are Made
The method behind these documentaries about castles is small enough to state in a paragraph. We find the claim a castle is famous for, usually by reading what its own operator, its tourist board and the existing videos all repeat. Then we go to the primary record: the institution that owns the site, the national heritage authority, the scholarly literature. Where those disagree with the popular version, the film is about the gap. Where they disagree with each other, we say so and leave it open rather than picking the tidier answer.
Two things follow from that, and they are worth stating plainly because they cost us material. We cut sections we cannot source, which is why some episodes are shorter than they might be. And where the record itself is divided, we leave the controversy unresolved on screen, which is less satisfying than a conclusion but closer to what the sources allow.
Our sourcing rules, including how we handle a source that turns out to be wrong, are written down in full on our editorial standards page. Where two credible authorities contradict each other, we log it rather than average it, and those cases are collected in where sources disagree.
Where to Start
There is no required order, these are not ranked, and runtimes are on every entry below. If you would like one film from each country to begin with, here is where we would start, and why.
In Germany, take the Wartburg, for the range of witnesses its film calls. Two famous stories are told at the castle, a contest of singers and the inkpot Martin Luther is said to have hurled at the devil, and the film puts them to evidence that runs from a chronicle to the rings of the hall’s oak beams. Its introduction on the German page sets the scene.
In France, and for architecture, take Chambord. At the center of its keep two spiral flights wind one above the other around a hollow core, so that two people climbing at once can see each other and never meet. Visitors are often told that Leonardo da Vinci designed the château, and the film takes that name to the evidence, from his notebooks to a building account of 1524. The French page introduces it.
If Scotland is what brought you here, begin at Urquhart, a ruin on the shore of Loch Ness. The film starts from a famous photograph and asks what the castle has to do with the monster’s story, by way of a local newspaper report from the 1930s and a saint’s life. Start with its introduction on the Scottish page.
If London is on your way, begin at the Tower of London. Its film walks the route the Chief Yeoman Warder takes each night with a candle lantern and the King’s Keys to lock the gates, and on the way takes the stories the Tower is famous for back to the documents. The English page introduces the film.
The Episodes: Germany
From the Allgäu to the vineyard terraces of Potsdam, the German films take one castle or palace at a time. All of them are introduced, and playable, on the German films page; each guide link below opens the cited written record.
- Neuschwanstein: The Castle That Ruined a King (13:21). Ludwig II’s unfinished castle in the Allgäu, and the question its title raises: did a building ruin a king? Guide: Neuschwanstein Castle.
- Luther Vanished Into Wartburg Castle and Remade a Language (18:19). A castle above Eisenach and two of its famous stories, the Singers’ Contest and Luther’s inkpot. Guide: Wartburg Castle.
- Eltz Castle Isn’t “Untouched.” It Was Bombarded for 5 Years. (14:30). A family castle in a Moselle side valley, and the word the film hears in nearly every video about it. Guide: Eltz Castle.
- Heidelberg Castle: Germany Chose to Keep It Broken (15:46). Red sandstone ruins above the Neckar, and not the usual question: why are they still a ruin today? Guide: Heidelberg Castle.
- Frankenstein Castle: Mary Shelley Never Came Here (17:47). A ruin south of Darmstadt with a famous name, and the claim that it gave Mary Shelley her story. Guide: Frankenstein Castle.
- Hohenzollern Castle: Built in 1867 to Look Ancient (16:59). On the Zoller above Hechingen, the castle of a dynasty, and what it was built to say. Guide: Hohenzollern Castle.
- Nymphenburg Palace: The King Who Fell for a Fake (19:58). King Ludwig I’s Gallery of Beauties in Munich, and why the palace puts Lola Montez’s “Spanish” in quotation marks. Guide: Nymphenburg Palace.
- Sanssouci Palace: Frederick the Great Waited 205 Years (17:19). Frederick the Great’s palace in Potsdam, the grave he chose on its highest terrace, and the story of a miller. Guide: Sanssouci Palace.
- Linderhof Palace: Ludwig II’s Deal With Bismarck (19:13). Ludwig II’s palace in the Graswang Valley near Ettal, and the letter Bismarck drafted for him to copy out in November 1870. Guide: Linderhof Palace.
The Episodes: France
From the Loire valley and the Paris region to Normandy and an island in the bay of Marseille, the French films take in castles, palaces and an abbey. Watch them on the French films page.
- Chenonceau: The Castle Two Queens Fought Over (17:44). A château across the Cher, and the tale of Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de’ Medici fighting over it. Guide: Château de Chenonceau.
- Château d’If: The Real Prison Behind Monte Cristo (14:46). An island fort off Marseille, once a prison, and the fictional prisoner many who make the crossing come for. Guide: Château d’If.
- Vaux-le-Vicomte: The Castle That Built Versailles (17:08). Fouquet’s château near Melun, a fête for the king, and whether one evening ruined him. Guide: Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.
- Joan of Arc Found a King Hiding in Chinon Castle (17:03). A royal fortress above the Vienne, and the scene usually told of Joan of Arc finding a hidden king. Guide: Château de Chinon.
- Everyone Says Leonardo Built Chambord Castle. The Truth Is Stranger. (16:53). A château near Blois with a double staircase whose climbers never meet, and the name visitors are told designed it: Leonardo da Vinci. Guide: Château de Chambord.
- Château de Vincennes: The Moat That Kept Killing (16:54). A royal keep on the edge of Paris, and what every regime after the kings found to do with it. Guide: Château de Vincennes.
- Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey: Who Wrote “Never Captured” (18:49). An abbey on its rock where Normandy meets Brittany, and who first wrote the two words “never captured.” Guide: Mont-Saint-Michel.
- Fontainebleau: The Palace Napoleon Had to Leave (14:50). A palace of kings and emperors south of Paris, and how Napoleon’s residence became the scene of his farewell. Guide: Château de Fontainebleau.
- Château Gaillard: Richard the Lionheart’s Doomed Castle (18:26). Richard the Lionheart’s castle above the Seine at Les Andelys: how was it taken, and what ruined it? Guide: Château Gaillard.
The Episodes: Scotland
The Scottish films take one castle at a time, from the capital to the Highlands and the Aberdeenshire coast. Watch them on the Scottish films page.
- Edinburgh Castle: Britain’s Most Besieged Place (16:55). A castle on its rock above Scotland’s capital, and the word the film finds in almost every guidebook: impregnable. Guide: Edinburgh Castle.
- Urquhart Castle: Who Invented the Loch Ness Monster (17:11). A ruin on Loch Ness, a famous photograph, and what the castle has to do with the monster’s story. Guide: Urquhart Castle.
- Dunnottar Castle: The Crown Cromwell Never Found (18:56). A cliff-top ruin near Stonehaven, the crown jewels Cromwell’s army came for, and the question of who got them out. Guide: Dunnottar Castle.
- Eilean Donan Castle: The Year Spain Invaded Scotland (18:30). A castle on a small island where three sea lochs meet, and the spring of 1719, when Spanish soldiers were inside it. Guide: Eilean Donan Castle.
The Episodes: England
From the Tower of London to the white cliffs of Dover, the English films take one castle at a time. Watch them on the English films page.
- Dover Castle: England’s Forgotten French Invasion (20:09). A castle on the white cliffs above the Channel, and the summer of 1216, when a French prince had been proclaimed king in London. Guide: Dover Castle.
- Bodiam Castle: Why England’s Perfect Castle Is Empty (18:21). A moated castle in the Rother valley, its outer walls near full height and its interior in ruins, and the old question of what it was built for. Guide: Bodiam Castle.
- Tower of London: Which of Its Legends Are True? (19:33). The Norman keep beside the Thames and the stories the Tower is famous for, from the princes of 1483 to the ravens. Guide: Tower of London.
Common Questions
Is there a documentary about castles on Netflix?
What any service streams changes by country and by month, so we cannot tell you what Netflix carries where you are. The series people usually mean is Secrets of Great British Castles, presented by the historian Dan Jones and made by Sideline Productions and Motion Content Group for Channel 5, with each episode given to a single castle. Its second series includes an Edinburgh Castle episode, and the service itself is the place to check.
What TV series are there about castles?
Besides Secrets of Great British Castles and Secrets of the Castle, BBC Four broadcast Castles: Britain’s Fortified History in December 2014, three episodes in which the historian Sam Willis “traces the story of Britain’s castles and their unique role in our history, art and literature.”
Is there a documentary about Guédelon Castle?
Yes. Guédelon, in Burgundy, is a fortified castle that has been under construction since 1997 using the techniques and materials of the thirteenth century, as a project in experimental archaeology. The BBC Two series Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom, broadcast in 2014, was made there: five episodes with the historian Ruth Goodman and the archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold. It is not one of our episodes, and we have not filmed there.
Are these documentaries free?
Yes. Every episode is on YouTube at full length, with no paywall, no account and no rental. Each film’s description links a written guide on this site, and most also carry a key-sources list, so you can check the sources without watching anything. On this site the films are gathered by country, on our German, French, Scottish and English pages, where each one plays in place.
Do you use AI narration?
Yes. The narration is read by synthetic voices, and we would rather you heard it here than worked it out. Everything else is human: the research, the script, the sourcing, the edit. We do not publish AI-generated images in a factual guide, and the photography in these films is licensed, public domain, or our own.
Beyond the Documentaries
If the films leave you wanting the mechanics rather than the stories, the reference articles on this site take the buildings apart: what a gatehouse actually did, how castle defenses worked as a system, why moats were rarely what films show, what walls and battlements were for, and what all the parts of a medieval castle are called. And for ghost stories rather than stones, our guide to haunted castles works on the gap between a story and the first text that records it.
To plan a visit rather than watch one, start with Germany’s castles, the châteaux of France, Scotland’s castles or castles in England. This page is updated as new episodes go live, and every film is also on our YouTube channel.
Conclusion
Castles, palaces and an abbey, and in nearly every film the same starting point: the story a visitor arrives with. What happens to that story once it meets the record is the film’s to tell, so this page leaves it there. What we can set out here is how the work is done. The films take their claims to the institution that runs each site, to the national heritage authority and to the scholarly literature, and each stands on a fully cited written guide on this site, where the record is laid out in full and the practical detail of a visit lives too. Pick a country, pick a film, and bring the question with you. The guides will be here when the credits roll.
Principal Sources
- BBC. “Castles: Britain’s Fortified History.” bbc.co.uk.
- BBC. “Castles: Britain’s Fortified History” (episode guide). bbc.co.uk.
- BBC. “How do you build a medieval castle from scratch?” Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom. bbc.co.uk.
- BBC. “Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom.” bbc.co.uk.
- BBC. “Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom” (episode guide). bbc.co.uk.
- DCD Rights. “Secrets of Great British Castles, Series 2.” dcdrights.com.
- Domaine national de Chambord. “Architecture.” chambord.org.
- Guédelon. “Guédelon.” guedelon.fr.
- Historic Environment Scotland. “History and stories” (Urquhart Castle). historicenvironment.scot.
- Historic Royal Palaces. “The Ceremony of the Keys.” hrp.org.uk.
Image credits. Hero, the Wartburg on its wooded ridge: Photo: sehbaer_nrw / Adobe Stock; Locator map: own work; country and state outlines from Natural Earth, public domain. Freely licensed images are resized to fit; any other change, such as a crop, is named in the credit.