Kyoto · Landmarks

Best Castle & Palace in Kyoto

7 places, each checked by our team.

• Fukuchiyama Castle 福知山城Fukuchiyama — A reconstructed castle keep built by Akechi Mitsuhide's domain, standing on original stone walls above Fukuchiyama.
• Katsura Imperial Villa 桂離宮Katsura / Nishikyo — The masterpiece of Japanese architecture and garden design, a 17th-century princely villa of teahouses around a pond, seen on a one-hour guided tour…
• Kyoto Imperial Palace 京都御所Kyoto Gyoen / Kamigyo — The emperors' residence until 1869, open free without reservation, where you walk past the Shishinden throne hall, cypress-bark roofs and pond…
• Kyoto State Guest House 京都迎賓館Kyoto Gyoen / Kamigyo — The government's guest house for state visitors, built in 2005 inside Kyoto Gyoen with traditional crafts and a pond garden, open by guided tour.
• Nijo Castle 元離宮二条城Nijo — The Tokugawa shoguns' Kyoto residence, where nightingale floors chirp underfoot in the gilded Ninomaru Palace and the end of shogunate rule was…
• Sento Imperial Palace 仙洞御所Kyoto Gyoen / Kamigyo — A hidden garden palace inside Kyoto Gyoen built for retired emperors, with a pebble beach of 111,000 hand-picked stones and Kobori Enshu landscapes,…
• Shugakuin Imperial Villa 修学院離宮Shugakuin / Sakyo — Emperor Go-Mizunoo's 17th-century villa in the northeast hills, three gardens linked by pine-lined paths through working rice fields, toured free by…