The Guardian has included the castle near the village of Ravadinovo in its ranking of the top 10 spectacular buildings around the world offering virtual tours during a pandemic. The castle is in the chart together with indisputable architectural masterpieces, such as the Palace of Versailles in Paris, Anne of Cleves House in East Sussex, Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Barquq in Cairo and others. The places in the ranking are from different eras and have different architectural styles, but they all offer virtual tours to anyone who has access to the Internet and a desire to see them.

Unlike the other sites in the ranking, however, the castle "In Love with the Wind" was built recently and has often been described as outright kitsch.

It still enjoys huge interest and has often won international awards and topped prestigious world rankings. The authors of The Guardian's ranking describe it as follows:

“In 1996, controversial Bulgarian businessman and wrestler Georgi Tumpalov drew a cross with his spade on a patch of ground about four miles west of the seaside town of Sozopol, on the Black Sea coast – the start of decades of work creating his fairytale, faux-medieval palace. The garden tour gives us ponds and palm trees, creeper-covered turrets and plenty of Bulgarian sunshine. Hover over ‘What to See?’ and click on each of the kitschy 360-degree interiors. There’s no zooming in on renaissance portraits here; just a twirling fantasia of stained glass, tarnished bronze and crimson velvet, to a soundtrack of birdsong and music that becomes steadily more portentous. The wine cellar – half grotto, half banquet hall – is equally baroque (with fake cobwebs on the picture frames) and the blue-vaulted reception room is a riot of gilding and taxidermied deer,” The Guardian wrote.

One can fall in love with the wind by taking a virtual tour in the castle near Ravadinovo HERE.

Compiled by: Veneta Nikolova

English: Alexander Markov