The Kentucky Castle has weathered a devastating fire and 30 years of neglect.
- The Kentucky Castle is a luxury boutique hotel in Versailles (pronounced "ver-say-elles"), Kentucky.
- It's a literal castle that sits on a hill right off the highway on the outskirts of Lexington, Kentucky's second-largest city.
- Nightly rates range from $295 to $695 on weekends during the high season.
- The hotel has just 13 rooms and includes an outdoor swimming pool, a spa, a bourbon bar, and a restaurant.
- While the hotel was luxurious and made attempts to offer a local vibe with its bourbon bar and scattered horse décor, it seemed out of place in Kentucky.
- Editorial note: Business Insider paid a discounted media rate for a night's stay at the hotel.
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On a recent trip to Kentucky, I spent a night in a castle that looked straight out of Medieval Europe - from a distance, at least.
The Kentucky Castle is a four-star luxury hotel in Versailles, Kentucky, about 10 miles outside of Lexington. The man who started building it in the 1960s was inspired by European castles and wanted to build one in Kentucky for his wife.
A divorce, a fire, two sales, and years of renovations later, the castle operates as a boutique hotel with an outdoor swimming pool, a spa, a bourbon bar, and a restaurant. The castle is used as a wedding venue and offers guided tours for $21.
According to the website, the hotel has plans to build an apiary, a lake for aquaculture, vineyards, fruit and nut orchards, a truffle orchard, a gourmet mushroom garden, and pastureland for cattle, goats, and sheep.
Here's what it was like to stay in a European-style castle in central Kentucky.