What is a collective term for castles, citadels, forts, palaces etc.?

Solution 1:

After looking at wikipedia entries for castles and fortifications, I can see that there are many technical historical-architectural terms which are very precise and detailed.

1^st option The encompassing term might be fortifications. This is technically probably a bit wide as it would include military constructs which people do not inhabit and might (technically) miss some of the buildings you are trying to describe. (You might go with fortified historical residences or some such term)

2^nd option On the other hand, depending on technical correctness you are aiming for, pragmatically and simply castles might be a good tag (you can explain in the tags summary that it also includes citadels, stately homes, etc.. )

Both the term castle and fortification are taken from this paragraph in wikipedia:

Castle is sometimes used as a catch-all term for all kinds of fortifications, and as a result has been misapplied in the technical sense. An example of this is Maiden Castle which, despite the name, is an Iron Age hill fort, which had a very different origin and purpose. Although "castle" has not become, like chateau in French and schloss in German, a generic term for an English country house, many of these use the word in their name while having few if any of the architectural characteristics...

3^rd option

Combining common characteristics of the terms that you want to describe

• Historical private residences (is it really necessary to say private, I wonder)
• Historical or fortified residences

Finally, I am not a historian nor an architect, so maybe asking in a more specialized environment might yield technically more appropriate result (wikipedia discussion page?).

Solution 2:

Does "Stately homes and castles" cover it? Or even just "Stately homes"?

Solution 3:

These tend to be referred to as historic buildings or sometimes the broader term ancient monuments. Of course those terms aren't precisely what you're looking for, since both terms can include buildings not on your list - an ancient barn, full of history, could be counted as an historic building or ancient monument - and equally if a palace was built right now it wouldn't be counted as either term (although it would, as Barrie points out, most likely be of architectural interest).

In Britain, the terms historic building and ancient monument have legal implications:

Historical buildings are:

ancient buildings, traditional settlements, old towns and streets and other historical and cultural remains that contain historical and cultural values, but have yet to be designated as ancient monuments.

Ancient monuments are:

either Scheduled Ancient Monuments or "any other monument which in the opinion of the Secretary of State is of public interest by reason of the historic, architectural, traditional, artistic or archaeological interest attaching to it"

Perhaps something like historical residences fits the bill?

Solution 4:

How about castles-etc.? It strikes me as unambiguous and simple.