kids encyclopedia robot

Coral Castle facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Coral Castle
Coral Castle 1.jpg
A structure resembling the Moon, along with other structures at Coral Castle
Coral Castle is located in Florida
Coral Castle
Location in Florida
Coral Castle is located in the United States
Coral Castle
Location in the United States
Location Unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida
Built 1920
NRHP reference No. 84000840
Added to NRHP May 10, 1984

Coral Castle is a mysterious and amazing place in Florida, USA. It's made from huge stones of oolite limestone. A man named Edward Leedskalnin built it all by himself. He was from Latvia and lived from 1887 to 1951.

The castle has many large stones, some weighing several tons. These stones are carved into different shapes. You can see walls, tables, chairs, a crescent moon, a water fountain, and even a sundial.

Many people wonder how Edward built Coral Castle alone. Some say he used special powers or "reverse magnetism." But photos and people who saw him work suggest he used simple tools like pulleys. Today, Coral Castle is a popular place for tourists to visit. It's located in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

The Story of Coral Castle

Why Edward Built the Castle

Edward Leedskalnin was 26 years old when his fiancée, Agnes Skuvst, left him. This happened in Latvia, just one day before their wedding. Heartbroken, Edward moved to the United States.

He later got very sick with a lung disease called tuberculosis. But he got better, and he believed that magnets helped him heal. This experience might have inspired some of his ideas about how things work.

Edward said he built Coral Castle for his "Sweet Sixteen." This was likely a special name for Agnes. He also wrote in his book that his "Sweet Sixteen" was more of an idea than a real person.

Building the Castle in Secret

Edward spent more than 28 years building Coral Castle. He usually worked alone and didn't like people watching him. However, some teenagers said they saw him working. They claimed the big coral blocks moved as if they were light like balloons.

Edward only mentioned using one special tool, which he called a "perpetual motion holder." This added to the mystery of how he moved such heavy stones.

Moving the Castle

Edward first built his castle in Florida City, Florida, around 1923. He called it "Ed's Place." Florida City was a very quiet and remote area back then.

Around 1936, Edward decided to move his entire castle. He wanted more privacy because people were starting to develop the land around his first castle. He spent three years moving all the parts of Coral Castle about 10 miles (16 km) north. He moved it from Florida City to its current spot near Homestead, Florida.

Edward renamed his new home "Rock Gate." He kept working on the castle until he passed away in 1951. Some of the new stones he used were dug up right on his property. The pools and pits you see near the castle walls are actually old quarries where he got his stones.

Visitors and Edward's Secret

When the castle was in Florida City, Edward charged visitors ten cents to look around. After moving to Homestead, he asked for 25 cents. But he would let people in for free if they didn't have money.

There's a sign carved into a rock at the front gate that says "Ring Bell Twice." Edward would come down from his tower to give tours. When people asked him how he built the castle, he would just say, "It's not difficult if you know how." He never fully explained his methods.

After Edward's Death

In November 1951, Edward became ill. He put a sign on his gate saying "Going to the Hospital." He took a bus to a hospital in Miami. He passed away 28 days later from a kidney infection. He was 64 years old.

Edward didn't have a will, so his castle went to his nephew, Harry, who lived in Michigan. Edward had earned money from tours, selling pamphlets, and selling some of his land.

The Coral Castle website says that Harry, Edward's nephew, sold the castle in 1953 to a family from Illinois. However, another story says a retired jeweler named Julius Levin bought the land from the state of Florida in 1952. He might not have even known there was a castle on it at first.

The new owners turned the castle into a tourist attraction. They changed its name from Rock Gate to Rock Gate Park, and then to Coral Castle. In 1981, Julius Levin sold the castle to a company called Coral Castle, Inc. This company still owns it today.

In 1984, Coral Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it's recognized as an important historical site.

The stone sign that says "Adm. 10c Drop Below" is not from the current location. Edward made this sign for his first castle in Florida City. He put it there because visitors were walking all over his plants. The owners of his first property later donated this sign to the current Coral Castle.

Exploring the Castle

Coral Castle 2
A view from within Coral Castle
Coral Castle 3
The Thirty Ton Stone

The Coral Castle grounds have about 1,100 tons of stone. These stones form walls, carvings, furniture, and a castle tower. Many people think it's made of coral, but it's actually made of oolite limestone. Oolite is a type of rock found in Florida. It's often just a few inches under the ground, which is how Edward found it.

How the Stones Are Connected

The stones are put together without any mortar (like glue for bricks). They are simply stacked on top of each other, using their own weight to stay in place. The way they fit together is so precise that no light can pass through the cracks. The tall stones that make up the outer wall are all the same height. Even after many years, the stones have not moved.

Amazing Features and Carvings

Inside the castle, you'll find many interesting things:

  • A two-story castle tower where Edward lived. Its walls are made of 8-foot-tall stone pieces.
  • A very accurate sundial that tells time using the sun.
  • A polar telescope for looking at the North Star.
  • An obelisk (a tall, narrow monument).
  • A barbecue, a water well, and a fountain.
  • Carvings of stars and planets.
  • Many pieces of stone furniture, including a heart-shaped table, a table shaped like Florida, 25 rocking chairs, chairs shaped like crescent moons, a bathtub, beds, and a throne.

Most of these objects are made from single pieces of stone. Each piece weighs about 15 tons on average. The biggest stone weighs 30 tons, and the tallest stones are two monuments that stand 25 feet (7.6 m) high.

The Famous Revolving Gate

A 9-ton (8.2 tonne) revolving gate, 8 feet (2.4 m) tall, is one of the most famous parts of the castle. It was featured on TV shows like In Search of... and That's Incredible!. The gate was carved so perfectly that it fit within a quarter of an inch of the walls. It was so well-balanced that even a child could open it with just a push of a finger.

The mystery of how this gate worked lasted for decades. But in 1986, it stopped turning easily. To fix it, six men and a 50-ton (45 tonne) crane were needed to remove it. Engineers discovered that Edward had drilled a hole from top to bottom and put a metal rod inside. The stone rested on an old truck bearing. The bearing had rusted, which made the gate stop working.

With new bearings and a new rod, the gate was put back in place on July 23, 1986. It stopped working again in 2005 and was repaired. However, it doesn't spin as easily as it once did.

The Mystery of How It Was Built

Coral Castle is still a popular tourist spot. Many books, magazines, and TV shows try to figure out how Edward Leedskalnin built it and moved such heavy stones. Some stories claim no one ever saw him work or that he made the stones float.

However, some people did see him. Orval Irwin, for example, saw him digging stones and building parts of the wall. He even wrote a book about it. A short film from 1944 also shows Edward at work.

The Coral Castle website says that when people asked Edward how he moved the blocks, he would only say he "understood the laws of weight and leverage well." He also claimed he had "discovered the secrets of the pyramids," referring to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Castillo de Coral para niños

  • Bishop Castle, a one-man construction project near Rye, Colorado
  • Ferdinand Cheval, a French postman who built Le Palais idéal, a similar stone castle
  • Mystery Castle, a one-man construction project built in the 1930s in Phoenix, Arizona by Boyce Luther Gulley
  • Watts Tower, designed and built by Simon Rodia

External links

  • Skeptic Magazine article
  • Coral Castle aerial photographs
kids search engine
Coral Castle Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.