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Yes there is a medieval castle in Canada, sort of.

Casa Loma, built by Sir Henry Pellatt, is a palace of a house modeled after ancient European castles.

Construction began on the house in 1911, and continued until 1914, when Pellatt and his wife moved in. However, large parts of the house were unfinished as this time, and World War I halted construction indefinitely.

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Henry Pellatt was born in Kingston, Ontario, to British parents on January 6, 1859. After attending college, Henry joined his father's stock brokerage firm, as a full partner, by age 23. Thinking electricity would become widely popular, Pellatt founded the Toronto Electric Light Company in 1883. For his military service, he was knighted in 1905, becoming Sir Henry Pellatt.

By 1911, having earned his $17 million dollar fortune, Sir Henry, with help from Canadian architect E.J. Lennox, drew up plans for Casa Loma, meaning "house on the hill." After three years of construction at a then cost of $3,500,000, Canadian money, the castle was still unfinished. Not only did World War I grind building to a halt in 1914, but it also hurt Pellatt's finances and he only remained at Casa Loma until 1924. When Pellatt died in 1939, at age 80, he only had $35,000 to his name.

For several years Casa Loma remained empty until William Sparling had the idea to turn it into a hotel. Sparling was given a long-term lease, and completed the Great Hall and the Billiard Room, but the remaining two unfinished wings would take $1 million to complete and were abandoned. In 1929, the hotel failed.

In 1936, The Kiwanis Club of West Toronto asked, and was given permission to run the castle as a tourist attraction. Casa Loma opened its doors to the public in 1937, after much refurbishing by The Kiwanis Club.

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Did you know?

• It took 300 men to carry out the initial 3-year construction.
   
  Casa Loma was built with: 98 rooms, 25 fireplaces, 3 bowling alleys, 5000 electric lights, a 150 foot shooting gallery, a 1700 bottle wine cellar that's temperature controlled, an indoor basement-level swimming pool, and a stove big enough to cook an entire steer whole.

   

  The cost just to build the surrounding stonewall was $250,000; the price Sir Henry Pellatt had wanted to spend for the entire project.

   

  While it originally cost $1,500,000 to furnish Casa Loma, in 1923 the furnishings sold for a total of $250,000 at a five-day long auction.

   

  Casa Loma has an 800-foot underground tunnel linking the house to the stables and the 5-acre gardens.

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