Admission: Adults (13-64) $15 – 7-12 $7.00 – under 7 -free Seniors – $12.00
Often equated with the engineering feats of Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Egypt, Coral Castle was built by reclusive eccentric Edward Leedskalnin, who single-handledly erected gigantic quarried stones resulting in his enigmatic castle.
A feast of coral imagery, the site lies behind massive 8′ high coral rock walls on a ten-acre tract, protecting it from the sprawling suburban city of Homestead. The coral walls fit together with amazing accuracy even though they were constructed without cement. These technical accomplishments have astounded engineers and scientists.
A small statured man barely weighing one hundred pounds, Ed quarried one piece of coral from the earth weighing over twenty-eight tons and then erected it himself! His accomplishments include a rocking chair weighing thousands of pounds that can be rocked with a finger, a five thousand pound heart-shaped coral rock table with a red blooming ixora growing from its center, is believed to be the world’s largest valentine according to Ripley’s.
Much of the site is calibrated to celestial alignments including an ingenious thirty ton telescope towering twenty-five feet above the complex, perfectly aligned to the North Star. A working sundial calibrated to noon of the Winter and Summer Solstice, is so accurate it tells time within two minutes.
Ed quarried over eleven hundred tons of coral rock for his Castle using tools fashioned from wrecking-yard junk, never revealing just how he managed to rise and position the massive coral blocks that make up his compound. An air of mystery surrounded the two story monolith known as the tower, which housed his workshop and living quarters. He was secretive and almost always worked at night; no one ever saw him.
In 1951 Ed took his secrets to the grave. The mystery of Coral Castle was never revealed.
