Oh good...you've come to help me find the Zero Room.

The Castrovalva FAQ:

Q: What is Castrovalva

A: Castrovalva is many things. There are five that I care about:

  1. Castrovalva is a town in Italy.
  2. Castrovalva is a sketch by the amazing artist M.C. Escher
  3. Castrovalva is the name of a four-part story in the BBC program Doctor Who.
  4. Castrovalva is a lake in Lechuguilla cave.
  5. Castrovalva is the domain name of a small server farm.

REGARDING SPAM: If you are here because you have some spam that says it came from "castrovalva.com", click here for more information.. Thanks.

Q: What is the point of this webpage?

A: Well, I've had the domain name castrovalva.com for several years, and on a pretty regular basis, people write me email with a message that goes something like "you are not using this, so I want to buy it".

Sadly, the great majority of internet users--including people who buy their own domain name--don't really understand how any of the system works; what is a machine name, an IP address or a domain name. They think that if there is no www.castrovalva.com, then castrovalva.com is not in use. So I made a www.castrovalva.com to explain to them that I am, indeed, using the name.

Q: Why did you use the name Castrovalva?

A: This is left as an exercise to the reader.

Q: But I really, really want to buy the name from you....

A: Every man has his price. But I doubt it, it would be a pain.

Q: Can you tell me where I can buy a copy of the Escher sketch?

A: No. I've looked but I can't find it anywhere for sale. If you do, please let me know.

Q: Can you tell me where I can buy a copy of the Doctor Who story?

A: New! Castrovalva is available on DVD! NTSC/Region one users, try amazon.com.

PAL/Region 2 & 4 users are limited to the three-disk box set with The Keeper Of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva at amazon.co.uk.

NTSC users can buy the same three-disk set For $34.99 on Amazon. Amazon.com also still has some in VHS NTSC and amazon.co.uk had them in VHS PAL. Try your local video emporium for DVDs as well; buy local when possible. I can't find it on Laserdisk anywhere. I did not look for Beta or RCA SelectaVision.

Q: Okay, so tell me about your castrovalva.com server farm? Can I host my webpage there? How about my game server?

A: No. Sorry. For various reasons I cannot allow commercial use of this site. Feel free to send me money anyway if you wish.

Q: Waitaminute...I'm an advanced user and I noticed that your webpage does not actually reside on a computer at castrovalva.com...what gives?

A: At the moment, that's true. I try to minimize the amount of data flowing to the castrovalva.com computers so as to be nice to the company that's providing the bandwidth.