Hirosaki Castle is historic site in Aomori prefecture, which sits at the northern tip of Japan's main island, Honshu. The building of the castle was first completed in 1611, but a lightning strike caused it to be burned to the ground. After being rebuilt into the symbol of Hirosaki that is stands at today, and earthquake in 1983 dealt damage to the stone foundation under the castle. Being such an impressively big and historic site, you can't just lift it up to fix something underneath like a sofa.
Or can you?
That's the ambitious endeavor that Hirosaki elected to undertake, as they put together a six-year plan to relocate the castle to a temporary location while repairs are administered to the damaged stone foundation of the original location. The process involves using steel hydraulic jacks to lift the castle up two feet, and then employing a dolly system to transport the castle to a temporary location 230ft away from its origin.
It's not a revolutionary procedure by any means, and is actually commonly used to move homes, but to do it with a massive castle with such local merit and a historic past? As you can imagine, it requires a ridiculous amount of precision and delicate attention to carry it out. You can observe the impressive technique in these two easy to watch time-lapses below.
And if time-lapses aren't your thing, here is a graphics based model that maps out the whole process.
If everything goes at the predicted pace, the castle should be safely returned to its original location in five years, when you can bet that another surge of manpower will be ready for another intense move. So it looks like Howl's monopoly on moving castles has come to an end!
Hirosaki Castle is historic site in Aomori prefecture, which sits at the northern tip of Japan's main island, Honshu. The building of the castle was first completed in 1611, but a lightning strike caused it to be burned to the ground. After being rebuilt into the symbol of Hirosaki that is stands at today, and earthquake in 1983 dealt damage to the stone foundation under the castle. Being such an impressively big and historic site, you can't just lift it up to fix something underneath like a sofa.
Or can you?
That's the ambitious endeavor that Hirosaki elected to undertake, as they put together a six-year plan to relocate the castle to a temporary location while repairs are administered to the damaged stone foundation of the original location. The process involves using steel hydraulic jacks to lift the castle up two feet, and then employing a dolly system to transport the castle to a temporary location 230ft away from its origin.
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
It's not a revolutionary procedure by any means, and is actually commonly used to move homes, but to do it with a massive castle with such local merit and a historic past? As you can imagine, it requires a ridiculous amount of precision and delicate attention to carry it out. You can observe the impressive technique in these two easy to watch time-lapses below.
And if time-lapses aren't your thing, here is a graphics based model that maps out the whole process.
If everything goes at the predicted pace, the castle should be safely returned to its original location in five years, when you can bet that another surge of manpower will be ready for another intense move. So it looks like Howl's monopoly on moving castles has come to an end!