Coral Castle

Coral Castle review

On the day before his wedding, Latvian Edward Leedskalnin was jilted by Agnes Scuffs on the grounds that he was too poor. Traumatised, Ed left Latvia and, after spells in California and Canada, came to Miami in 1919. It was then that he embarked on a monumental act of lovelorn folly and built this castle of coral. In addition to being a strange and touching testament to one man's inability to just get over it, Coral Castle is also a miracle of engineering. Secretive Ed built the castle himself between 1920 and 1940 using only hand tools, a feat that is mind-boggling even before you learn that Leedskalnin was just five feet tall. The mystery: how did he shift tons of rock from Florida City, where he carved it, to Homestead, where he erected it? Totally bonkers, but also quite beautiful, and certainly worth a detour for anyone driving down to the Keys.