Overpass query example

Castles in a region

Find castles, palaces and fortresses. Example: Rhineland-Palatinate.

Castles are tagged historic=castle; castle_type says whether it is a fortress, a palace, a manor or a ruin (ruins=yes).

The query

[out:json][timeout:60];
area["name"="Rheinland-Pfalz"]["admin_level"="4"]->.a;
nwr["historic"="castle"](area.a);
out center;

Run it

Running the query…

Live result from overpass.ch, cached for up to 12 hours. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How it works

German federal states have admin_level 4. Use their German name.

Variations

Only ruins: add ["ruins"="yes"]. Palaces: ["castle_type"="palace"].

Run it from your code

curl https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter \
  --data-urlencode 'data@query.overpassql'

import requests

query = open("query.overpassql").read()
r = requests.post("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter",
                  data={"data": query}, timeout=120)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json()["elements"][:3])

const res = await fetch("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter", {
  method: "POST",
  body: new URLSearchParams({ data: query }),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text());
console.log(await res.json());

Save the query as query.overpassql. It works the same in Overpass Turbo, QGIS and JOSM.

More examples

Building outlines

Get every building footprint in a small area. Example: the old town of Bern.

Tall buildings by number of floors

Find buildings with 15 or more floors using a numeric if: filter. Example: Frankfurt.

Vineyards

Draw land use areas such as vineyards. Example: the Lavaux terraces on Lake Geneva.

All addresses on a street

List every house number on a street. Example: Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich.

Places of worship

Find churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, with religion and denomination. Example: Kraków.

Museums in a city

Find museums and galleries. Example: Berlin.

All examples →