Castle

history · Middle Ages · fortress

Home and fortress. A castle was the private fortified home of a lord or noble during the Middle Ages, built to protect them as well as house them.

Royal builders. Castles were mostly built by the nobility, royalty, or military orders, not ordinary families.

Clever defenses. Many castles had common features like thick curtain walls, narrow arrowslits to shoot through, and a heavy gate called a portcullis.

Not a palace. A castle is different from a palace, mansion, or villa, which were built mainly for comfort and pleasure rather than for defense.

Many shapes. Over the centuries castles took on a huge variety of forms and features as builders found new ways to make them strong.