Alexander Nemo, Замок ручной работы / Hand-built castle

The castle pictured above is a hand-built creation, located about 50 km north of the Russian city of Omsk on the premises of a large holiday resort named Politodel [1]

This site was created by Alexander Nemo, who was born and raised in or near Yekaterinburg, Russia, and became a professional soldier [2]. The military school in Riga, where he received his training, had classrooms in the towers of an old medieval castle, which made a great impression on the young Nemo and instilled in him a love for the Middle Ages.

For a number of years Nemo was part of the Russian army. He then worked for the Yekaterinburg police until his retirement.

Once retired, he wanted to give shape to his involvement in medieval architecture and in Yekaterinburg he made a first attempt to create a medieval building, but this project failed because it did not comply with the official regulations. 

He then found a spot in the woods north of Yekaterinburg, where he built a  house with three floors. The land was not his property and in 2009 the owner claimed the place, after which Nemo left for another place.

Here, in Politodel, his lust for building once more took shape after he and the holiday park near Omsk made an agreement about the construction of a castle on the grounds of the resort.

In 2010, Alexander Nemo set to work on the resort's grounds and the accompanying images show a result that stands out indeed.

Visitors now see a castle with an architecture very similar to that of medieval buildings. There is a two-storey towery structure that protects the main entrance to the castle, in architectural terms a barbican. This building also serves as Nemo's summer residence. 

There is a moat with a bridge over it. And there's the castle itself, which looks like a large fortress with seemingly impenetrable fortress walls.

To build the castle, waste was used such as can be found in the landfill, especially bricks from demolished buildings, parts of old pipes, old metal plates, and the like.

The inside of the structure consists of a large wooden infrastructure against which the exterior walls are laid. The remaining space between the frame and the outer wall is filled with cement mortar. 

The wooden infrastructure is set up in such a way that it also includes the interior design, such as stairwells, corridors and rooms, and even an internal balcony, as can be seen in the image at the bottom of this article.