They say a person’s home is their castle, but in Mojang’s Minecraft, you can build a castle to be your home. Whether you build it in the Nether or on a mountain, those thick walls are perfect for keeping out mobs.

Here are eight of the most impressive Minecraft builds for castles we’ve seen from YouTubers with equally impressive subscriber numbers.

Some of the castles highlighted here are a little daunting, even if you follow the blueprints to the letter. So why not start off with a simple castle?

There are numerous simple castle designs on the web, but a great one to start with is Gorillo’s Easy Starter Castle for Survival. This castle has been designed so that you can actually build it in survival mode rather than creative mode. Gorillo has chosen materials that are relatively easy to get early in survival mode, so it’s not just a nice place to stay overnight, it’s a survival base that will keep those Creeper mobs out of your bed.

The castle has a short tower and walls that are three blocks high. There are only a few basic rooms, so really it’s more like a castle-style Minecraft house, but it looks way swankier than the basic huts most of us build early in Minecraft survival mode. Compared to that, this is the lap of luxury.

Building a castle is cool, but you still need to build it on the same dirt that the peasants use to slap together their hovels. If you really want to look down on the plebians, why not build a castle that floats in the sky?

Now, this isn’t a build for the faint of heart. Twin Saw has broken their tutorial into multiple parts where you’ll first learn how to build the four floating spires (the same design repeated four times) and then the actual central castle. It’s a five-part step-by-step series, so you shouldn’t feel lost. However, we strongly suggest watching all five parts before you start building, since they do add some corrections in later videos that you’ll want to know about.

In Part E of the tutorial, you can see that the interior of the castle is really just a large open space, but it should be easy to adapt it to whatever rooms you may need. This is mainly an exterior, aesthetic build, but you can always make a nice big throne room for yourself.

Most of the time when you use the word “castle” people immediately think of a European castle, or a fantasy castle derived from European castles. Of course, cultures all over the world built the functional equivalent of castles, and Japan is quite famous for these beautiful structures.

Unfortunately, unlike basic medieval castles, it’s not exactly obvious how to get a Japanese-style castle right. LionCheater has come up with a small, relatively easy design that captures the essence of what makes these castles so distinctive.

The interior isn’t much to write home about, especially since this is such a small example of this architecture. But if you can build this smaller version, it’s not a major leap to scale it up for your own larger designs.

We absolutely love this adorable little castle. It’s reminiscent of those super-simplified LEGO building models. So this little lo-fi castle build isn’t much more than a gussied-up house, but just look at it!

Also, this is an excellent project if you’re short on time and just want to make something cool. It’s small enough to be doable in survival if you want to challenge yourself. The list of materials is really modest by Minecraft castle standards. The whole thing fits in 17×25 blocks. You could even add a tiny moat and a cobblestone road to complete the illusion.

Minecraft may seem like a game that doesn’t limit what its players can do, but up until update 1.18, there was a significant limit on how high the mountaintops can be in a generated world. With this limit now increased, you can reach for the sky and look down the mountainside on whichever beautiful biome with the right size mountains you decide to use.

BigTonyMC’s layout is quite simple, with a main room, a tower, a storage room, and stairs to the next floor, which has the entrance to the tower. This is one of the best tutorials we’ve seen, and it’s pretty easy to follow. Best of all, if you follow it exactly, you’ll end up with a castle that’s beautifully textured and has a completely decorated interior.

Does the classic school slash castle from the ultra-famous wizard franchise need any introduction? If you don’t know what Hogwarts or Harry Potter is, then this castle might not be all that special to you. But even in isolation, this is just an incredible project.

Planet Dragonod really goes to great lengths to recreate the magical movie school with all its buildings. We especially like that it’s done in classic Minecraft style, without all of the newfangled Minecraft mods the kids like these days.

Be warned, this is a huge project, and the tutorial spans several videos. You can tell just by looking at the foundation layout in the first video that this is going to be a long-term build. Still, it’s one of the best Minecraft castle ideas we’ve seen, and it’s executed so well.

The real beauty of it is that you can go crazy with texture packs and biome modifications to turn this barebone Hogwarts into whatever glossy vision you want to see. The castle design is as timeless as the movies.

Children of all ages (that includes your parents and your grandparents) can instantly recognize the silhouette of the Disney Castle. Well, we say “castle” but really it’s more of a palace. That’s just nitpicking though, because this fantastical structure is a fantastic building idea, especially if you love tower castles.

There are quite a few different takes on making the Disney World castle in Minecraft. We’ve picked out Bubbaglubba’s excellent design. This castle looks like the real deal, but it cleverly works on creating the impression of a huge Disney castle, without being as big as it looks. Ironically, that’s exactly how a real-life Disney World castle is designed.

This specific castle blueprint is based on Cinderella’s castle, which is probably the most iconic of the Disney castles. Minecraft players who want to attempt their own build should get ready for a wild Minecraft castle design that’s 60 blocks high and 44×41 blocks in size. This beautiful castle is a welcome break from digging out yet another medieval dungeon.

If you’re looking for something straight out of the tales of King Arthur, then this medieval-style castle by Stevler couldn’t be more perfect. It’s got everything the budding lord needs, with a main building, wizard tower, middle tower, small tower, and practical spaces like a stable for horses, barracks, and a warehouse to use as storage rooms.

Stevler used the BSL shaders pack to get this exact look, but of course you can use any pack you want or just stick with Minecraft’s default look. Don’t forget that you can also use ray tracing if you have the GPU for it.

The materials list in this castle tutorial doesn’t have much in it that could be considered exotic. It’s mainly stone, stone bricks, spruce wood, and a few other small touches. Stevler gets a lot done with a rather narrow variety of materials.

Can’t Get Enough of the Minecraft World?

Minecraft really seems like an infinite playground and there’s always something new to learn in the game. We’ve got a ton of great tutorials for you to expand your skills:

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Simply search for “Minecraft” on the site, and you’ll find tutorials and awesome troubleshooting guides to help you make the most of the world’s favorite game.