Castles

Castles are fortified residences built in Europe, the Middle East and Japan during the Middle Ages by nobility or monarchies and by military orders.

Understand
While fortifications and stately homes have been known since ancient times, the combination of those functions arose in Europe around AD 900, as strongholds of local feudal lords, to hold off enemy raids by Vikings, Magyars, Saracens and nomads, as well as rival lords.

While we do not know a specific "year zero" of castle construction, the rise of castles in the 10th century is one of the features that define the transition from Early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages.

Castles went through many stages of development, to respond to military and economic needs. They were usually built on high ground, to improve their role of defense, as well as their role for observation and prestige. A castle was usually the dominant building of a town, only contested by the church.

In some locations (notably the Middle East) Knights, men of noble birth skilled in warfare from horseback, organized into quasi-religious orders, commissioned a number of castles.

The adoption of gunpowder weapons from the 14th to the 17th centuries made castles gradually less useful as fortifications, and replaced by bastion forts. The style with towers and battlements remained as ornaments of palaces and grand houses well into the 19th century (see Renaissance architecture), and can still be seen in novelty architecture.

Cyprus
Three Gothic castles, strategically positioned so as to allow fire signalling between each other, adorn the Kyrenia Mountains. They were built (or re-built) by the Lusignans, a royal family of French origin, who established a kingdom on the island facing the Holy Land during the Third Crusade.



Finland




Germany


Germany has an abundance of castles as the medieval period saw a vast amount of small and tiny polities gaining de facto independence and there were several low ranking noblemen who had their own castle as a defense in case of (frequent) feuds or a safe haven from which to strike trade routes and the likes. The 13th century with the almost total collapse of central authority in the Holy Roman Empire saw a high point in feuding but even after feuds were largely eliminated and legal recourse for disputes was established new castles were constructed for various defensive and - increasingly - representative purposes.

Italy
Italy was comprised of numerous city-states and small kingdoms from the fall of the Roman Empire until its reunification in the 19th century, many of which were frequently at war with each other, and numerous castles were built to protect the leaders of these small states.

Latvia

 * Turaida castle near Sigulda

Spain
Alcázar is the Spanish word for Moorish castles, and was derived from the Arabic word القصر (al-qaṣr). As this suggest, most castles with that name were built during Arab rule, though it is also used for a few castles that were built after the resumption of Catholic rule following the Reconquista.

Slovakia
Slovakia boasts the greatest castle-density in the world.

United Kingdom
True Castles (those built for defensive purposes) in the United Kingdom were constructed from the start of Norman Conquest onward, until the early 17th century when developments in military technology rendered them less effective from a defensive viewpoint. Sometimes the castles were built on or near the basis of early pre-Norman fortifications.

Whilst there are true castles in Scotland (notably Edinburgh and Stirling), there are also a number of tower-houses (effectively fortified residences).

China
Although China does not have a tradition of castle-building per se, the Forbidden City is surrounded by fortifications, making it resemble a castle in this respect.

Japan


While different in style from their European counterparts, Japan was also a nation of castle builders during the feudal period from the start of the Kamakura Period (12th century) to the end of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (17th century). Unlike most surviving European castles, the main keeps (天守閣 tenshukaku) of Japanese castles were largely made of wood, so many have either decomposed or been lost to fire over the years. In addition, unlike in Europe, the main keep of the castle was a purely military structure and not the lord's residence; there was typically a separate set of palace buildings where the lord lived, next to the main keep.