A report on Castle

Dating back to the early 12th century, the Alcázar of Segovia is one of the most distinctive castles in Europe.
Built in 1385, Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, England, is surrounded by a water-filled moat.
The Norman White Tower, the keep of the Tower of London, exemplifies all uses of a castle including city defence, a residence, and a place of refuge in times of crisis.
Windsor Castle in England was founded as a fortification during the Norman Conquest and today is one of the principal official residences of Queen Elizabeth II.
Baba Vida medieval castle build on the banks of the Danube in Vidin, Bulgaria
São Jorge Castle in Lisbon, Portugal, with a bridge over a moat
The wooden palisades on top of mottes were often later replaced with stone, as in this example at Château de Gisors in France.
A courtyard of the 14th-century Raseborg Castle in Finland
The 14th-century keep of Château de Vincennes near Paris towers above the castle's curtain wall. The wall exhibits features common to castle architecture: a gatehouse, corner towers, and machicolations.
Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey, North Wales, with curtain walls between the lower outer towers, and higher inner curtain walls between the higher inner towers.
A 13th-century gatehouse in the château de Châteaubriant, France. It connects the upper ward to the lower one.
Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland is surrounded by a moat.
Daorson, Bosnia, built around a prehistoric central fortified settlement or acropolis (existed there cca. 17/16th c. to the end of the Bronze Age, cca. 9/8th c. BCE), surrounded by cyclopean walls (similar to Mycenae) dated to the 4th c. BCE.
Borġ in-Nadur fort in Malta, built during the Tarxien phase and used until the Bronze Age.
The Bayeux Tapestry contains one of the earliest representations of a castle. It depicts attackers of the Château de Dinan in France using fire, a major threat to wooden castles.
Built in 1138, Castle Rising in Norfolk, England is an example of an elaborate donjon.
Albarrana tower in Paderne Castle, Portugal
The gatehouse to the inner ward of Beeston Castle in Cheshire, England, was built in the 1220s, and has an entrance between two D-shaped towers.
Krak des Chevaliers in Syria is a concentric castle built with both rectangular and rounded towers. It is one of the best-preserved Crusader castles.
The design of Edward I's Harlech Castle (built in the 1280s) in North Wales was influenced by his experience of the Crusades.
The northern walls of the Gran Castello in Gozo, Malta, were built in the 15th century.
Corvin Castle in Transylvania (built between 1446 and 1480) was one of the biggest in Eastern Europe at that time.
Castle De Haar, Utrecht, Netherlands.
The angled bastion, as used in Copertino Castle in Italy, was developed around 1500. First used in Italy, it allowed the evolution of artillery forts that eventually took over the military role of castles.
Neuschwanstein is a 19th-century historicist (neoromanesque) castle built by Ludwig II of Bavaria, inspired by the romanticism of the time.
Castello Dei Baroni, a country residence in Wardija, Malta, designed with castle-like features.
A 19th-century depiction by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc of the construction of the large tower at Coucy Castle in France, with scaffolding and masons at work. The putlog holes mark the position of the scaffolding in earlier stages of construction. The tower was blown up in 1917.
Experimental archeology castle building at Guédelon Castle site in France (2015).
God Speed! by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1900: a late Victorian view of a lady giving a favour to a knight about to do battle.
Highland castles such as Château de Montségur in southern France have become the popular idea of where castles should be found because they are photogenic, where in reality castles were built in a variety of places due to a range of considerations.
Srebrenik Fortress in Srebrenik, Bosnia: inaccessibility of location with only a narrow bridge traversing deep canyon provides excellent protection.
Almourol Castle in Portugal, which stands on a small islet in the Tejo River.
Tavastia Castle in Hämeenlinna, Finland, one of the northernmost castles in Europe. The exact date of construction of the castle is unclear, as far as it is known to have been built in the late 13th century, but the first mention of it in contemporary documents is from 1308. It was built close to Lake Vanajavesi.
An early 13th-century drawing by Matthew Paris showing contemporary warfare, including the use of castles (here Lincoln Castle), crossbowmen and mounted knights.
A reconstructed trebuchet at Château des Baux in Bouches-du-Rhône in the south of France.

Type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders.

- Castle
Dating back to the early 12th century, the Alcázar of Segovia is one of the most distinctive castles in Europe.

60 related topics with Alpha

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The moat surrounding Matsumoto Castle

Moat

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The moat surrounding Matsumoto Castle
North view of the fortress of Buhen in Ancient Egypt.
A medieval moat castle in Steinfurt, Germany
The 17th-century fortified town of Naarden, Netherlands, showing bastions projecting into the wet moat
Map of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and surrounding Gardens showing the elaborate moat system
Dry moat at the James Farley Post Office in New York City.
Muiderslot, Netherlands
Moat surrounding Fort Pulaski National Monument near Savannah, Georgia
Matsumoto Castle, a Japanese Castle in Nagano Prefecture
Bodiam Castle, a 14th-century castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England
Caerlaverock Castle, a 13th-century castle in southern Scotland
The Forbidden City, Beijing: North-western angle
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Egeskov Castle, Denmark
Castle of Lissingen
Sigiriya moat, Sri Lanka
Frozen moat of the walled city of Qufu, China
Fort Bourtange, a late 16th-century star fort in Groningen, Netherlands
Fort Brockhurst a mid-19th-century polygonal fort in Hampshire, England
Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida
Moat with civic houses bordering on it in Steinfurt
Beijing ancient city gate and moat
Vellore Fort Moat, in Tamil Nadu, India
The Daalsesingel, a part of the moat that surrounds the city center of Utrecht, Netherlands
Hikone Castle moat
Forbidden City moat
Landskrona Citadel with mid 15th-century dual moat construction

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence.

Warwick Castle and the River Avon

Warwick Castle

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Warwick Castle and the River Avon
An old map published around 1610 by John Speed showing Warwick; the castle is in the south of the town, next to the River Avon.
The motte of the Norman motte-and-bailey castle is called Ethelfleda's Mound
Caesar's Tower was built between 1330 and 1360
Guy's Tower 2017
The Bear and Clarence Towers which were built by King Richard III in the 1480s
A gibbet, previously on display in the dungeon in the basement of Caesar's Tower
The castle's south facade as seen across the River Avon
The chapel was built by Fulke Greville in the early 1600s
The east front of Warwick Castle from the outer court, painted by Canaletto in 1752.
The east front of Warwick Castle from inside the courtyard, painted by Canaletto in 1752.
Warwick Castle, painted by William Pitt about 1870
Display of armour and weaponry
The gatehouse
Merlin Entertainments provides extensive maintenance for the property, as here on Ethelfleda's Mound
One of the groups of wax figures in the castle; Lord Brooke, a young Winston Churchill and Spencer Cavendish
One of the first views of the castle for tourists entering the grounds
The conservatory in 2017
Plan of Warwick Castle
The Warwick Castle trebuchet is currently the largest one in the world (2009)
It was reconstructed based on 13th-century drawings, and functions properly (2018)
Warwick Castle trebuchet from the rear (2010)
Close up of the walking cage on the trebuchet (2010)

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068.

Inside of an arrowslit, where an archer would stand, at Corfe Castle.

Arrowslit

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Narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.

Narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.

Inside of an arrowslit, where an archer would stand, at Corfe Castle.
Exterior view of arrowslits in the Bargate gatehouse in Southampton
An arrowslit at Cité de Carcassonne. The wall thickness is reduced to 0.7 m to accommodate the niche and the embrasure widens at an angle of 35°.

Although used in late Greek and Roman defences, arrowslits were not present in early Norman castles.

North Street Postern Tower (aka Barker Tower), York

Postern

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North Street Postern Tower (aka Barker Tower), York
Postern in the rampart of Provins, Seine-et-Marne, France
The postern of Newport Arch, built by the ancient Romans in Lincoln, England, located to the right of the larger main arch, and used for pedestrian traffic

A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall.

9th century BC relief of an Assyrian attack on a walled town

Defensive wall

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Fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors.

Fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors.

9th century BC relief of an Assyrian attack on a walled town
The lakeside wall of the Yueyang Tower, Yuan dynasty
Medieval defensive walls and towers in Szprotawa, Poland, made of field stone and bog iron
Remains of a defensive wall of Prince Qin Mansion, a citadel within Xi'an
The Stone City is a wall in Nanjing dated to the Six Dynasties (220～589). Almost all of the original city is gone, but portions of the city wall remain. Not to be confused with the City Wall of Nanjing.
17th-century map of the city of Palmanova, Italy, an example of a Venetian star fort
Chinese angled bastion fort, 1638
Multiple barbicans of Tongji Gate, Nanjing
A model of a typical Chinese city wall.

Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts, ringworks, early castles and the like, tend to be referred to as ramparts or banks.

Soldiers of the Royal Artillery firing 105mm light howitzers during an exercise

Artillery

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Class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms.

Class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms.

Soldiers of the Royal Artillery firing 105mm light howitzers during an exercise
French soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War 1870–71
British 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle-Loaded (RML) Gun on a Moncrieff disappearing mount, at Scaur Hill Fort, Bermuda. This is a part of a fixed battery, meant to protect against over-land attack and to serve as coastal artillery.
7-person gun crew firing a US M777 Light Towed Howitzer, War in Afghanistan, 2009
A bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon" from the Huolongjing.
A depiction of an early vase-shaped cannon (shown here as the "Long-range Awe-inspiring Cannon"(威遠砲)) complete with a crude sight and an ignition port dated from around 1350 AD. The illustration is from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing.
French gunner in the 15th century, a 1904 illustration
First Battle of Panipat
Bullocks dragging siege-guns up hill during Akbar's Siege of Ranthambore
The Austrian Pumhart von Steyr, the earliest extant large-calibre gun
Three of the large Korean artillery, Chongtong in the Jinju National Museum. These cannons were made in the mid 16th century. The closest is a "Cheonja chongtong"(천자총통, 天字銃筒), the second is a "Jija chongtong"(지자총통, 地字銃筒), and the third is a "Hyeonja chongtong"(현자총통, 玄字銃筒).
Artillery with gabion fortification
The Tsar Cannon (caliber 890 mm), cast in 1586 in Moscow. It is the largest bombard in the world.
A 19th-century cannon, set in the wall of Acre to commemorate the city's resistance to the 1799 siege by Napoleon's troops.
Prussian artillery at the Battle of Langensalza (1866)
Armstrong gun deployed by Japan during the Boshin war (1868–69)
8-inch Armstrong gun during American Civil War, Fort Fisher, 1865
The French Canon de 75 modèle 1897, the first modern artillery piece
German 15cm field howitzers during World War I
M982 Excalibur guided artillery shell
M1156 Precision Guidance Kit can be added to unguided projectiles
Artillery can be used to fire nuclear warheads, as seen in this 1953 nuclear test.
152 mm howitzer D-20 during the Iran–Iraq War
Battleship ammunition: 16" artillery shells aboard a United States
Cyclone of the 320th French Artillery, in Hoogstade, Belgium, September 5, 1917
The Finnish Defence Forces using 130 mm Gun M-46 during a direct fire mission in a live fire exercise in 2010.
German Army PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery
Horse-drawn artillery
Man-pulled artillery
Australian gunners, wearing gas masks, operate a 9.2 in howitzer during World War I
Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin (1772–1851)
A British 60-pounder (5 in) gun at full recoil, in action during the Battle of Gallipoli, 1915. Photo by Ernest Brooks.
Two French Army Giat GCT 155mm (155 mm AUF1) Self-propelled Guns, 40th Regiment d' Artillerie, with IFOR markings are parked at Hekon base, near Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in support of Operation Joint Endeavor
A 155 mm artillery shell fired by a United States 11th Marine Regiment M-198 howitzer
USMC M-198 firing outside of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004
Modern artillery ammunition. Caliber 155 mm as used by the PzH 2000
Illustration of different trajectories used in MRSI: For any muzzle velocity there is a steeper (> 45°, solid line) and a lower (<45°, dashed line) trajectory. On these different trajectories, the shells have different flight times.
An artillery piece in the monument commemorating the 1864 Battle of Tupelo (American Civil War)

Cannons were only useful for the defense of a castle, as demonstrated at Breteuil in 1356, when the besieged English used a cannon to destroy an attacking French assault tower.

Château Gaillard's inner bailey

Château Gaillard

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Château Gaillard's inner bailey
A 17th-century portrait of Richard the Lionheart, the man responsible for building Château Gaillard.
The keep of Château Gaillard is surrounded by a moat.
An impression by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a 19th-century architect experienced in renovating castles, of how the Siege of Château Gaillard would have looked
A plan of Château Gaillard by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, with north pointing to the bottom-left-hand corner. The inner bailey and keep is at the bottom of the plan and the outer bailey is at the top. But there is at least one mistake, the tower supposed to contain the latrines on the right of the keep, was not round but square.

Château Gaillard is a medieval castle ruin overlooking the River Seine above the commune of Les Andelys, in the French department of Eure, in Normandy.

The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

Middle Ages

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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history.

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history.

The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.
A late Roman sculpture depicting the Tetrarchs, now in Venice, Italy
Barbarian kingdoms and tribes after the end of the Western Roman Empire
A coin of the Ostrogothic leader Theoderic the Great, struck in Milan, Italy, c. AD 491–501
A mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna (Italy), bodyguards, and courtiers.
Reconstruction of an early medieval peasant village in Bavaria
An 11th-century illustration of Gregory the Great dictating to a secretary
Map showing growth of Frankish power from 481 to 814
Charlemagne's palace chapel at Aachen, completed in 805
10th-century Ottonian ivory plaque depicting Christ receiving a church from Otto I
A page from the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created in the British Isles in the late 8th or early 9th century
Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy) those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry). The relationship between these classes was governed by feudalism and manorialism. (Li Livres dou Sante, 13th century)
13th-century illustration of a Jew (in pointed Jewish hat) and the Christian Petrus Alphonsi debating
Europe and the Mediterranean Sea in 1190
The Bayeux Tapestry (detail) showing William the Conqueror (centre), his half-brothers Robert, Count of Mortain (right) and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux in the Duchy of Normandy (left)
Krak des Chevaliers was built during the Crusades for the Knights Hospitallers.
A medieval scholar making precise measurements in a 14th-century manuscript illustration
Portrait of Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher by Tommaso da Modena, 1352, the first known depiction of spectacles
The Romanesque Church of Maria Laach, Germany
The Gothic interior of Laon Cathedral, France
Francis of Assisi, depicted by Bonaventura Berlinghieri in 1235, founded the Franciscan Order.
Sénanque Abbey, Gordes, France
Execution of some of the ringleaders of the jacquerie, from a 14th-century manuscript of the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis
Map of Europe in 1360
Joan of Arc in a 15th-century depiction
Guy of Boulogne crowning Pope Gregory XI in a 15th-century miniature from Froissart's Chroniques
Clerics studying astronomy and geometry, French, early 15th century
Agricultural calendar, c. 1470, from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi
February scene from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Medieval illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th-century copy of L'Image du monde
The early Muslim conquests Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632 Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661 Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750

The dominance of the nobility was built upon its control of the land, its military service as heavy cavalry, control of castles, and various immunities from taxes or other impositions.

Portcullis at Cahir Castle in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Portcullis

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Heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down grooves inset within each jamb of the gateway.

Heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down grooves inset within each jamb of the gateway.

Portcullis at Cahir Castle in County Tipperary, Ireland.
The inner portcullis of the Torre dell'Elefante in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy.
Double portcullis gates at Petersberg Citadel, Erfurt
Beaufort Portcullis badge of the Tudors
The ensign of HM Customs & Excise

Portcullises fortified the entrances to many medieval castles, securely closing off the castle during time of attack or siege.

Aerial photograph of Margat, taken in the 1930s

Margat

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Aerial photograph of Margat, taken in the 1930s

Margat, also known as Marqab (قلعة المرقب), is a castle near Baniyas, Syria, which was a Crusader fortress and one of the major strongholds of the Knights Hospitaller.