Medieval Castles Facts (Photo: )
The primary purpose of a medieval castle was to defend a city or harbor from attackers. Dating back to the 9th century, castles still dot the European countryside.
The first medieval castles erected in the 9th century were constructed of stone, timber and earth. In some places, old Roman monuments, such as Hadrian’s Mausoleum in Rome, were turned into castles.
The outer wall, or curtain wall, was the castle’s first line of defense. Although the walls might be 20 feet thick, the weakest point was the gatehouse, so it was reinforced with massive doors, flanking towers or perhaps a drawbridge, if a trench or water-filled moat surrounded the castle.
Inside the walls was the heavily fortified keep, also known as the dungeon. This was the residence of the commander or the lord and his family. If attackers breached the walls, the garrison could fall back to the keep.
Typically, castles had a prison, a chapel, workshops, storehouses for food and weapons and a well to supply water during a siege.
Gunpowder made castles obsolete. The most striking proof of this came in 1453 when the cannons of the Ottoman Turks pounded the massive walls of Constantinople to rubble.
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