Coral Castle: A Colossal Mystery Inspired by Romance

Blogger: Amber Lemus

 

Today I am sharing about one of the strangest places I've ever visited. When I first went, I thought it a tragic and romantic tale. But revisiting the story almost ten years later, I feel it might be a little on the creepy side too. Let me know what you think.

Several years back, my family and I took a vacation to Florida. While we were there, we visited a very interesting, but often unheard-of attraction. They call it Coral Castle.

Before I go into the interesting and mysterious parts of the castle itself, there's a story you must know.

Ed Leedskalnin

Romance & Heartbreak

Ed Leedskalnin was born in 1887 in Latvia, a small country in Northern Europe, right next to Russia and Lithuania. He was a stone mason, like his father before him. When he was 26 years old, he met and fell madly in love with a sixteen-year-old girl named Agnes Scuffs. He convinced her to marry him, and a date was set.

Today, a twenty-six-year-old marrying a sixteen-year-old would probably be considered pedophilia, however in those days, girls marrying at such a young age was pretty common. Still, it does feel a little weird.

Just one day before the wedding, Ed's "Sweet Sixteen" called off the wedding. She would never marry him, she said. Ed was crushed. So deep was his grief, that he left his native country of Latvia and journeyed to the United States where he settled near Miami, Florida. Here, he began to build one of the modern world's greatest mysteries, a tribute to his lost love.



Eccentric, NOT crazy. 

Ed was a small man, about five foot tall, and weighing in at less than 100 lbs. His small size didn't keep him from doing big things. He settled in a place where there was a ton (pun intended) of fossilized coral. He excavated this stone by himself and used it to carve out blocks and build his castle. 

He built his first castle around 1923, but later moved to another location that was closer to the population base around 1939.


 Ed was a very interesting fellow, though somewhat strange. But he attested that he was not crazy. Eccentric, yes, but not crazy. At the entrance to the castle, he has a sign that says "You will be seeing an unusual accomplishment." He had a bell, with a sign that instructed the visitor to ring twice if they wanted a tour. If they failed to follow the instructions, he would either ignore them, or yell over the wall: "Go away. You can't follow directions and you might break something."



A Wonder of the Modern World

A map of the Coral Castle sculptures - Click to enlarge

From his background as a stone mason, Ed had great knowledge of stone, leveraging heavy objects and masonry, but that still doesn't account for the amazing sights at Coral Castle. The entire castle is made up of the Coral Stone and scraps that he picked up from junkyards. To start, he created a wall around the castle. Then he erected a tower in one corner for his living quarters and tools, and the rest of the courtyard was somewhat of a playground for him. He built tables, chairs, a sundial, a self-heating bath, rock telescopes, models of the planets, an obelisk and much more.

The Nine-Ton Gate

Ed had two gates to his castle, both made of large stones that were so perfectly balanced that you could push the stones like a revolving door with only one finger. One gate was three tons, the other made of a nine-ton stone. We're talking TONS here.

The entire castle was built with his "Sweet Sixteen" in mind. He always made things in sets of three. One for him, one for Agnes, and one for the child that they would have. Ed dreamed that one day, Agnes would come across the ocean, agree to finally marry him, and they would live happily ever after in his Coral Castle.

Below, we see the Feast of Love table. "We men are forgetful." Ed said, "I may forget to buy her a Valentine, so I built her one out of stone so that she will always have a valentine from me." The flowers at the center were her favorite kind, until they recently died and were replaced. "I am too poor to buy her flowers all the time, so I planted them here so that she will have flowers every day."

I mean, that's pretty sweet...if the object of his affections wasn't a sixteen-year-old who had rejected him and moved on with her life already. 

The Feast of Love Table

Here's something interesting, if your sweetheart proposes to you in front of this table of love, and you accept, they will let you have your wedding at the castle. According to their website, they occasionally do renewal of the vows at the castle for couples.

You might be wondering, did Anges ever know that poor Ed had come out here and built a castle for her with his own hands? The answer, sadly, is yes. Someone once asked her if she knew about the castle, and if she knew that he'd built it all for her. She replied, "Yes, but I didn't want to marry him then. And I don't want to marry him now." 

Ed's Obelisk

To the right is a picture of the obelisk that Ed built. Guess how much it weighs. twenty-eight tons. The heaviest stone in the castle is thirty tons. TONS, people! I was amazed.

How on earth did one man -one very small man- carve and move those rocks by himself? That remains a mystery. He worked only at night, or when people could not see him. If people would show up, he would stop working. "When you leave, I can get back to work." He would say. 

There are many theories about how he built this fantastic castle. Some say Aliens came and told him how to build it, helping him with their anti-gravitation devices. Others say that it was just sheer leverage. I personally find that difficult to believe.

Ed studied a lot about magnets and the magnetic force and had even managed to create a magnetic generator. Some believe that he somehow used his knowledge of magnets to levitate the stones. This seems more probable to me.

Above is the only picture of Ed building the castle. See that little guy down there at the bottom? Ya, that's Ed.

The Tragic End

So how does Ed's story end? His castle became quite an attraction, and folks would pay him for tours. He lived very simply in an upstairs part of the corner tower. He did this until he fell ill in December of 1951. He left a sign on the castle door that said, "going to hospital." He died three days later at the age of 64. 

Ed never married.

Still today, Ed's legacy lives on. The Coral Castle became a National Historic Place in 1984. It is a very impressive, possibly romantic, yet mysterious tribute to his lost love. Kinda reminds me of the Taj Mahal, although that story was a little happier.

So what do you think? Is Ed's tribute to Agnes romantic or creepy? Let me know in the comments below this post. 

(If you're reading this by email, you'll need to visit the blog page to leave a comment.)

*****

Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award for historical fiction, Amber Lemus inspires hearts through enthralling tales She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call "historical fiction at its finest".  

She lives near the Ozarks in her "casita" with her prince charming. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers and hang out on Goodreads with other bookish peoples.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at http://www.amberlemus.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!

How One Man Survived World War Two

By Donna Wichelman

Today’s blog marks the beginning of a series on the Nazi Occupation of France during World War Two. We’ll talk about how the Germans took France by storm and recount the personal stories of several French people still alive in 2023. 

When I first met Mr. René Avril, I found a kind and gentle man—mostly deaf and blind—who’d lived a long and fulfilling life despite a beginning wrought by war even before his birth. He was eager to talk about the war and told story after story of surviving the Nazi occupation.

Mr. René Avril, October 2023: Donna

Born near Saint-Malo, Brittany in June 1931, Mr. Avril came into the world when France still had not recovered from World War I. Every French man, woman, or child had lost someone. Not long after the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, they knew another war was coming. “Everyone knew it, and everyone feared it,” he said.

The knowledge another war was inevitable set the stage for the events in May and June 1940 when the German Army made a surprise assault north of the Maginot Line. Named after the French Minister of War, André Maginot, France built a series of concrete fortifications and weapons installations, then filled them with special ops troops during the 1930s to defend France’s border along Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Italy.

Bunker Ouvrage Schoenenbourg, Maginot Line, Alsace France

Photo 254297474 © Renaud Philippe | Dreamstime.com

The French had scaled back fortifications on the Maginot line north of Saarbrücken, which ran through rugged forested terrain where no one expected an attack. But, it was the perfect place for the Germans to break through French defenses, sending them southward in retreat. By the time German troops arrived in Paris on June 14, 1940, 1.8 million French soldiers were taken as prisoners of war—ten percent of the adult male population. Over a hundred thousand died.

Mr. Avril was nine years old when the German Army marched west and south, capturing most of the north of France and Paris. Like most French people in Brittany, his family was poor; their house had seven people, three bedrooms, four beds, and no running water. But they had a magnificent garden with vegetables and hens and enjoyed the company of friendly neighbors.

Example of a French Country House: Donna's Gallery 2023

Once the Germans occupied the land, farmers’ lives became harder as German soldiers requisitioned the farmland, requiring farmers to yield a part of their crops to the German Army. Ordinary French citizens received the leftovers, which barely filled their stomachs.

As children, Mr. Avril and his friends tried to get news from the BBC. But soon, the Germans forbade wireless in French homes. Still, they heard the news from other sources passed along through the grapevine.

School-age children attended school, but a massive shortage of teachers made education difficult. Also, Germans requisitioned school buildings. Though the building where Mr. Avril attended was a beautiful facility, the Germans turned it into a hospital. Mr. Avril recalled the first time he returned in the fall of 1944 after the liberation. The building smelled like disinfectant, having been cleaned by American and French soldiers, removing materials Germans left behind, like their jackboot grease.

Example of German Jackboot

Photo 35359114 | German © Soloway | Dreamstime.com

The French can attribute much of their resilience during the war to the French Resistance—the Maquis. Most of the one hundred thousand of them, by the war’s end, were farmers and peasants who wished to avoid conscription into the German military. Their stealth methods and brave actions saved countless lives—French, Jewish, and Allies alike.

Mr. Avril’s favorite uncle worked as a spy in Lorient, but unfortunately, he and forty of his compatriots received the death sentence when German soldiers discovered them. Though a sad loss, pride seemed to rise in Mr. Avril’s voice for an uncle who helped them win the war.

Members of French Resistance March in Liberation Celebration in Libourne, France

Libourne City Archives

When the Allies invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944, news of their arrival traveled like wildfire. The troops couldn’t advance, and Mr. Avril (now thirteen) and his friends discussed tactics. They knew General Patton led the front lines and suggested among themselves that he should attack west, as the peninsula was west, and no help could come by sea for the Germans. Then, when Patton did exactly as they had discussed, they declared him a genius. “He was a man I admired.” Mr. Avril's blind eye twinkled.

In early August, Mr. Avril heard his aunt shout from another room, “They’ve arrived!” Of course, they were excited the Allies had entered Brittany. But they were also worried. It could mean battles nearby. Indeed, a significant battle occurred in Saint-Malo in which the Allies won, capturing Germans holding out in underground foxholes. But the battle destroyed the coastal town, making it a heap of stone, as with many towns along the way.

Mr. Avril’s family watched from their garden as German convoys migrated west on neighboring roads, hoping to hold off the Allies in the coastal town of Brest. But the Americans were more powerful. At first, the community was scared when they heard the noisy roar of American airplanes—P-47 Thunderbolts descending rapidly from the sky. But soon, they realized that if the planes descended, they were attacking Germans and would say in French, “Good riddance!” Mr. Avril said the words with exuberance. “It was a happy moment.”

P-47 Thunderbolt

297700101© Paulbroad Dreamstime.com

In the post-war years, rebuilding ruined towns was a priority. Everyone participated. Mr. Avril’s father, a smith, repaired the ironwork on a railroad bridge. They also gathered piles of rubble into trucks and airplanes and dumped them into the ocean. The change was rapid, and life became a new normal.

When I asked my final question of Mr. Avril what message he wanted to leave the young people today, he didn’t hesitate. He wanted them to know that Marshal Philippe Pétain, President of Hitler’s Vichy government, had given in to the enemy. “These people were creatures of the Nazis; they helped them; they saved the industry to work for Germany … Pétain was against the resistance … [he] met Hitler and shook hands with him. He was a collaborator from the beginning.” 

Mr. Pétain was tried as a collaborator and sentenced to death in August 1945. His sentence was immediately commuted to life in solitary confinement. He lived the rest of his life in a fortress on the Île d’Yeu off the Atlantic coast and died at the age of 95.

Donna worked as a communications professional before turning to full-time writing. Her short stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various inspirational publications. She also has two indie-published Christian contemporary suspense novels in her Waldensian Series Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor. She is working on a World War Two historical slip-time project.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of her love of history and English literature as a young adult while attending the United World College of the Atlantic--an international college in Wales, U.K. She loves to

explore peoples and cultures of the world and enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, forgiveness, and redemption in a world that often withholds second chances. You can find out more about Donna Wichelman or sign up for her newsletter at https://donnawichelman.com/

Finding Your Fairytale Adventure in a French Castle

By Donna Wichelman

I suspect many of us, at least in the Western world, grew up on fairytales. At one time or another, we imagined ourselves as the strong and courageous Cinderella whose prince came galloping in to save her from her evil stepmother and took her off to live happily ever after in his royal castle. Or perhaps you were King Arthur in the Knights of the Round Table, leaving his royal fortress behind to go on a quest for the Holy Grail.

The fairytales of our youth evoked a romantic and magical world, making us long to be in the story. If we adults are honest with ourselves today, we still yearn for the kind of romanticism and adventure such tales provide. That’s why in June 2023, WordsRated—an international research data and analytical group—reported that in 2022, 788 million copies of print books were sold in the United States, fifty-two percent in the fiction category.

Figures don’t lie. Most of us crave an escape into another world in our ordinary work-a-day worlds. We want to identify with the heroes and heroines whose lives are full of drama, adventure, or romance in exotic, beautiful, historical, or peaceful places where, despite encountering terrible trouble, all our hopes and dreams can come true.

Why am I talking about fairytales and escapes into other worlds in my blog series on little-known castles in France? Because it is possible to live your fairytale dream, even if only temporarily, if you have or are willing to spend the money to experience it. Of the forty-five thousand castles in France, many have been renovated into luxury hotels.

During our five-day bike trip in the Dordogne Valley, we discovered one of those refurbished castles while crossing a bridge on our way to Rocamador. The castle had such a lovely and strategic position surrounded by forests on a precipice over the river that we decided to take a mile detour downriver to see what it was.

Château de la Treyne Overlook on the Dordogne River, May 2023

To our delight, Château de la Treyne in LaCave provided a much-worthy diversion with its stately French gardens and majestic towers. Today, the fourteenth-century medieval castle is listed as one of France’s “monuments historiques,” having been home to knights and noblemen over the centuries, and the Louvre Museum’s Egyptian collection during World War II. 

Château de la Treyne, La Cave, France: Donna's Gallery, May 2023

Château de la Treyne, French Gardens: Donna's Gallery, May 2023

With its Michelin-starred restaurant, dinners are served in the Louis XIII dining room in the winters and the candlelit terrace overlooking the river in the summers. The breakfasts have been described as “magnificent feasts” of croissants and pastries, and the interior as “enchanting.” Guests often sip champagne or the local vin de noix (walnut wine) around a stunning hearth in the reception room.

Château de la Treyne, Louis XIII Dining Room

Château de la Treyne, Dinner on the Terrace

Though we were unable to see any of the luxury rooms—at four hundred dollars per night, we relative paupers only ogle from the outside looking in—one reviewer from The Telegraph had this to say: “It is impossible to say which of the 17 rooms is the loveliest. Several have four-poster beds and striking original features: an incredible Gothic woodwork ceiling, a painted vaulted ceiling, a 14th-century spider web of exposed beams, polished Versailles parquet. Luxurious bathrooms have Jacuzzi baths, multi-jet showers and Hermès products; and a generous courtesy tray includes fruit, biscuits, walnuts, sweets perhaps, and a handwritten note of welcome from Stéphanie and husband Philippe (owners of the hotel since 1982).

One of Many Guest Suites at Château de la Treyne

So, if you want to live your fourteenth-century fairytale castle experience on the picturesque Dordogne River, Château de la Treyne may offer you a brief escapade into another world that you’ve been looking for. But don’t forget to take your knight in shining armor, your maiden in distress, and those sparkling glass slippers.

Glass Slipper from Disneyland: Donna's Gallery

Donna worked as a communications professional before turning to full-time writing. Her short stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various inspirational publications, and she has two indie-published novels in her Waldensian Series, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of her love of history and English literature as a young adult while attending the United World College of the Atlantic--an international college in Wales, U.K. She loves to explore peoples and cultures of the world and enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, forgiveness, and redemption in a world that often withholds second chances.

You can find out more about Donna Wichelman at www.donnawichelman.com.