59 Fun Facts About Castle

The word "castle" comes from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum. What does castrum mean?

The same root gives French château, Spanish castillo and Italian castello.

The word "castle" entered English shortly before which event?

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle uses 'castel' in 1051 for strongholds raised by Norman favourites of Edward the Confessor, fifteen years before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

In its simplest terms, what is the academic definition of a castle?

The private and residential part matters: a castle was a home first, which separates it from a fort or a fortified city.

In castle terminology, what is a motte?

A motte is an earthen mound with a flat top, usually artificially raised, that carried a timber or stone tower above the enclosure below.

What is the ditch, wet or dry, that was dug around a castle's walls called?

A moat is the ditch around a castle, wet or dry; its main job was to stop attackers tunnelling under the walls, not to drown them.

A bailey, the fortified enclosure of a castle, is also known by what other name?

A bailey is also called a ward; larger castles had several, such as inner and outer wards, and the lord's best rooms often moved from the tower into them.

The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille, meaning what?

Norman-French baille, or basse-cour, meant a low yard, the enclosed court below the motte; the English word bailey descends from it.

What did medieval people call the great tower, before 'keep' was applied in the 16th century?

Donjon was the medieval name for the great tower; the modern word dungeon is a corruption of it, which is how a lord's grandest tower became a byword for a prison.

What is a portcullis?

A portcullis is a metal-reinforced wooden grille that slid down grooves to seal a gateway; many gatehouses had two, trapping attackers in the passage between.

Which popular belief about murder holes, the openings above a gateway passage, is a myth?

The cost of oil and lead, plus the distance from the gatehouse to any fire, made the classic movie image impractical.

Arrowslits, the narrow vertical openings in castle walls, are also commonly called what?

Arrowslits are also called loopholes or arrow loops; the slit gave the defender a tiny target, though one cut too narrow also cramped the archer's aim.

Arrowslits did not become common in European castle walls until which century?

Arrowslits only became common in European castle walls in the 13th century, since builders feared they would weaken the wall; the East had used them at several levels for far longer.

What were machicolations?

Machicolations are wall-top projections with holes in the floor for dropping objects on attackers below; they did the job of wooden hoardings in permanent stone.

Machicolations were introduced into Western architecture as a result of what?

They had been used in Syria perhaps as early as the first half of the 8th century, long before Western knights saw them.

Which French château, fortified around 950, is the oldest known castle in Europe?

Château de Doué-la-Fontaine in Anjou began as a ground-floor hall around 900 and was raised into a fortified tower around 950, making it the oldest known castle in Europe.

It has been estimated that an average-sized motte would take 50 people roughly how long to build?

An average motte took about 50 people some 40 working days to raise; unskilled labourers could manage it, which is why the design spread so fast after conquests.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows attackers trying to do what to the wooden castle at Dinan?

The Tapestry shows soldiers with torches trying to set the timber castle at Dinan on fire; fire was the great weakness of wooden castles and an argument for stone.

Gunpowder artillery was introduced to Europe in which decade?

Gunpowder artillery reached Europe in the 1320s; the earliest picture of a cannon is in Walter de Milemete's manuscript of 1326, though guns only breached stone walls reliably in the 15th century.

As castles declined, what type of fortification replaced them for military purposes?

Star forts, angular artillery works of the trace italienne, replaced castles as military strongholds; they had no civil role, while lords moved into indefensible country houses.

Which castle is the longest-occupied palace in Europe?

Windsor Castle has housed English monarchs since Henry I in the early 12th century, making it the longest-occupied palace in Europe and the largest inhabited castle in the world.

Neuschwanstein Castle was commissioned by which monarch?

Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned Neuschwanstein and paid for it from his personal fortune and heavy borrowing rather than state funds, threatening suicide if creditors seized it.

Neuschwanstein was built partly in honour of which composer?

Neuschwanstein was built as a tribute to Richard Wagner, its rooms painted with scenes from his operas such as Tannhäuser and Lohengrin; Wagner died in 1883 without ever visiting it.

The king who built Neuschwanstein lived in it for how many days in total?

The king slept at Neuschwanstein for just 172 days in total before his death in June 1886; the unfinished palace opened to paying visitors seven weeks later.

Neuschwanstein served as the inspiration for the Disneyland castle of which princess?

Neuschwanstein inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and later Cinderella Castle; it has also appeared on film in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Great Escape.

Himeji Castle in Japan is nicknamed after which bird?

It is Japan's largest and most visited castle and looks, supposedly, like a bird taking flight.

Who completely rebuilt Himeji Castle between 1601 and 1609 after receiving it from Tokugawa Ieyasu?

Ikeda Terumasa, Ieyasu's son-in-law, was granted Himeji for his service at Sekigahara in 1600 and spent eight years rebuilding it, ringing it with three water-filled ditches.

Himeji Castle was registered as one of Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in which year?

Himeji was inscribed in December 1993 alongside Hōryū-ji, Yakushima and Shirakami-Sanchi; it survived wartime bombing and the 1995 Kobe earthquake, when a sake bottle on its top-floor altar stayed put.

According to Guinness World Records, which is the largest ancient castle in the world?

Prague Castle, covering almost 70,000 square metres, is the largest ancient castle in Guinness World Records; it has housed kings, Holy Roman emperors and Czech presidents.

Which Polish castle is the largest in the world measured by land area?

Malbork Castle in northern Poland is the world's largest castle by land area; it was the world's largest brick castle when completed in 1406 and became a UNESCO site in 1997.

Which crusading order built the brick fortress of Marienburg, now in northern Poland?

The Teutonic Knights, a German crusading order founded at Acre in the 1190s, began the castle in 1274 and named it Marienburg after Mary, mother of Jesus.

In 1457, who sold the fortress of Marienburg to King Casimir IV of Poland?

The Order's unpaid Bohemian mercenaries handed Marienburg to Casimir IV in lieu of their wages in 1457; it then served as a Polish royal residence until the partition of 1772.

Which Romanian castle is marketed abroad as "Dracula's Castle"?

Bran Castle near Brașov is sold to tourists as Dracula's Castle, although there is no evidence Bram Stoker knew of it and Vlad the Impaler is not known to have lived there.

Krak des Chevaliers in Syria was given in 1142 to which military order?

Raymond II, Count of Tripoli, handed it over, and the order rebuilt it into what T. E. Lawrence called perhaps the best preserved castle in the world.

How did the Mamluks reportedly persuade the garrison of Krak des Chevaliers to surrender in 1271?

The siege had lasted 36 days, and the fake order to give up did what the siege engines could not.

Edinburgh Castle stands on the plug of what?

Castle Rock is the plug of an extinct volcano that erupted about 350 million years ago, in the lower Carboniferous; glaciers later scraped away the softer rock around it.

Edinburgh Castle's One O'Clock Gun is fired daily except on Sundays, Christmas Day and which other day?

The One O'Clock Gun is silent on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day; it began in 1861 as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth.

What is Mons Meg, displayed at Edinburgh Castle?

The great bombard was delivered to Edinburgh in 1457 and was returned from the Tower of London in 1829.

Research in 2014 identified how many sieges of Edinburgh Castle in its 1,100-year history?

The 2014 study counted 26 sieges over 1,100 years, giving Edinburgh Castle a claim to being the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world.

In which year did William the Conqueror begin the White Tower at the Tower of London?

William the Conqueror began the White Tower in 1078, using Caen stone from Normandy for its dressings; Londoners resented it as a symbol of Norman oppression.

At least how many ravens are kept at the Tower of London at all times?

At least six ravens must be kept at the Tower, with a spare or two; legend says the kingdom will fall if they leave, and a Yeoman Warder, the Ravenmaster, tends them.

The Crown Jewels have been on public display at the Tower of London since which year?

The Crown Jewels have been shown to the public since 1669, two years before Colonel Blood tried to steal them; the present Jewel House in the Waterloo Block opened in 1994.

Who gave the Tower of London a polar bear in 1252 that fished in the Thames on a chain?

Haakon IV, King of Norway, sent the bear in 1252; the sheriffs of London paid fourpence a day for its keep and it fished in the Thames on a long chain.

The Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley was commissioned by which French king?

Francis I began Chambord in 1519 as a hunting lodge, yet he spent barely seven weeks there in total during his reign.

What is the celebrated centrepiece of the Château de Chambord, sometimes attributed to Leonardo da Vinci?

The open double-spiral staircase at Chambord's heart lets two people climb at once without meeting, glimpsing each other only through small openings; Leonardo, who died in 1519, may have designed it.

How many staircases does the Château de Chambord have?

Chambord has 84 staircases, 440 rooms and 282 fireplaces; Henry James thought its roofline of towers and chimneys looked like a whole city.

Whose body was reportedly found and reburied on Edward I's orders during the building of Caernarfon Castle?

The Flores Historiarum says the body of Emperor Magnus Maximus was found in 1283 and reburied on Edward I's orders; Caernarfon's banded walls deliberately echo the imperial walls of Constantinople.

The Alhambra palace and fortress complex is in which Spanish city?

The Alhambra crowns the Sabika hill above Granada in Andalusia; building began in 1238 and the complex became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

The Alhambra was begun in 1238 by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the first emir of which dynasty?

Muhammad I founded the Nasrid dynasty, whose emirs kept enlarging the Alhambra until their emirate fell in 1492; Charles V later planted a Renaissance palace beside their work.

Bodiam Castle in Sussex was built in 1385, ostensibly to defend against invasion from which country?

Its shallow moat was probably more about looking impressive than stopping miners, and the site had little strategic value.

Which Danish castle is immortalised as Elsinore in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Kronborg at Helsingør is Shakespeare's Elsinore; Hamlet was first staged there in 1816, and on-site Hamlets have included Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi and Jude Law.

Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva is famous for imprisoning which Genevan monk and historian in 1530?

François de Bonivard, prior of St Victor in Geneva, was held in Chillon's dungeon from 1530 until a Bernese army took the castle in 1536; Byron's poem made him famous.

The much-photographed Eilean Donan in the Scottish Highlands was originally a stronghold of which clan?

Their allies the Macraes acted as bodyguards, earning the nickname "Mackenzie's shirt of mail".

The Hohenzollern Castle in Germany that stands today is which castle on that hilltop site?

The present castle is the third on the site: the first was destroyed in 1423 and the second fell into ruin, before Frederick William IV built this one between 1846 and 1867.

How many original tenshu (main keeps) survive in Japan?

Twelve original tenshu survive, including Matsumoto's, a National Treasure; the rest were lost to Meiji-era demolition, wartime bombing or fire and later rebuilt in concrete.

Which Welsh castle's water defences, made by flooding a valley, are among Europe's largest?

Caerphilly, begun by Gilbert de Clare in 1268, covers more than 30 acres; damming a stream created artificial lakes that rank among the most elaborate water defences in Britain.

Master James of Saint George, Edward I's castle designer, built which castle?

Beaumaris on Anglesey, begun in 1295, was Master James's last Welsh castle; his letter of 1296 asked for 400 masons, 2,000 labourers, 200 quarrymen and 30 boats bringing stone.

Dover Castle cost about how much to build between 1181 and 1191?

Dover's works of 1181–1191 cost about £7,000, a vast sum when a very small tower like Peveril cost around £200 and a great castle could swallow the income of several manors.

What is the fortified outwork of rampart, ditch and tower built in front of a castle gatehouse called?

A barbican was an outwork of rampart, ditch and tower built before the gatehouse in the later Middle Ages; it forced attackers along a single, exposed approach to the gate.

How tall was the stone tower at Château de Langeais, built in France in 992?

The Langeais tower stood 16 metres high and 17.5 metres across, with walls averaging 1.5 metres thick holding about 1,200 cubic metres of stone.