Coral Castle

To the south of Miami a local landmark is located called Coral Castle. One peculiar thing makes the uniqueness of this castle – it was created by one person without the use of construction engineering. A Latvian by birth, Edward Leedskalnin came to Florida at the beginning of the last century and after 28 years of painstaking work he embodied in stone the dream of home and family hearth, which he never had. Coral Castle is a tribute to the memory of his girlfriend, who rejected him on the wedding eve. The castle is built of large-size coral limestone blocks. The way Ed delivered and moved multi-ton blocks, remains a mystery even today. 152 cm in height and 45 kg by weight, suffering from a progressive form of tuberculosis, he single-handedly created the structure, which weighed all together more than 1,100 tons. The way to the castle passes through the giant nine-ton gate fixed in such a way that it turns around by a slight push. On the premises of the castle you can see bizarre huge stone statues, fairy-tale characters, the celestial bodies – Saturn, Mars and the half-moon. Under the ground there is a magnificent swimming pool, where rainwater flows down. Sun-clock still shows time accurate within seconds. Inside the castle in the open air he made a nursery room, decorated with figures of fantastic fairy-tale characters, a large bedroom with royal coral bed, designed as a throne room. Table, located in the middle of the room, is carved in the shape of a heart in the center of which red flowers planted by Edward are still blooming. This is the world's largest stone Valentine.