60 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 building type itself was new to England at the time; the Anglo-Saxons had fortified towns but not private strongholds.

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?

Raising one is a medieval innovation; ditches and ramparts are ancient, but the artificial mound is not.

Digging earth to build the mound left a ditch around it. What is that ditch called?

It could be wet or dry, and its main job was often to stop attackers tunnelling under the walls rather than to drown anyone.

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

Larger castles often had several, and over time the lord's best rooms migrated out of the tower and into them.

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

Very little skilled labour was needed to build a motte-and-bailey castle, which suited conquerors with forced peasant labour available.

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

The modern word "dungeon" is a corrupted form of it, which is how a lord's grand tower became a byword for a dark prison.

What is a portcullis?

Gateways were the weakest point of a castle, so many had two of them plus a passage where defenders could attack anyone caught 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?

They were meant to give the defender a tiny target, but a slit that was too small also got in the archer's way.

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

Builders feared they would compromise the wall's strength; the East had used them at multiple levels for far longer.

What were machicolations?

They did the same job as wooden hoardings but were probably an Eastern invention rather than an evolution of the timber gallery.

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.

Edward I founded eight castles in Wales in the late 13th century. How many had a concentric design?

Edward had been on Crusade himself and copied the layered defences he had seen in the East.

Which French building, fortified around 950, is Europe's oldest standing castle?

It began as a hall in the Loire region before being raised into a fortified tower.

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

An unskilled workforce 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?

Fire was the great weakness of timber castles, and a strong argument for rebuilding in stone.

Gunpowder artillery was introduced to Europe in which decade?

It spread quickly, but only became powerful enough to breach stone walls in the 15th century.

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

These angular artillery works had no role in civil administration, while the lords moved into indefensible country houses.

Which castle is the longest-occupied palace in Europe?

Monarchs have used it since the reign of Henry I, and it is also the largest inhabited castle in the world.

Neuschwanstein Castle was commissioned by which monarch?

He paid for it out of his personal fortune and heavy borrowing rather than public funds, and threatened suicide if creditors seized it.

Neuschwanstein was built partly in honour of which composer?

The composer died in 1883 without ever visiting the building dedicated to him.

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

He died in 1886 before it was finished, and it opened to the public shortly after his death.

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

It also inspired Cinderella Castle and has appeared 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?

He was rewarded with the castle for his help at the Battle of Sekigahara and added three moats.

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

It has survived bombing and earthquakes largely intact — even a bottle of sake on the top-floor altar stayed put during one quake.

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

It covers almost 70,000 square metres and has housed Bohemian kings, Holy Roman emperors and Czech presidents.

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

On its completion in 1406 it was the world's largest brick castle, and it became a UNESCO site in 1997.

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

The order had been created in 1191 at Acre and named the castle in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus.

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

The unpaid soldiers handed it over in lieu of indemnities, and it served as a Polish royal residence until 1772.

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

There is no evidence Bram Stoker knew anything about it, and historians agree Vlad the Impaler never 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?

The rock is estimated to have risen about 350 million years ago in the lower Carboniferous period.

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

Its only known use in war was firing in vain at a German Zeppelin during a 1916 air raid.

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?

That record gives it a claim to being the most besieged place in Great Britain.

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

It is the earliest stone keep in England and was initially resented as a symbol of oppression.

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

Legend says the kingdom will fall if they leave, and they are looked after by a Yeoman Warder called the Ravenmaster.

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

They have been kept in the Jewel House in the Waterloo Block since 1994.

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

Haakon IV's gift cost the sheriffs fourpence a day in upkeep and drew crowds of Londoners.

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

It was meant as a hunting lodge, yet the king spent barely seven weeks there in total.

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

Two people climbing it at the same time never meet, glimpsing each other only through small openings.

How many staircases does the Château de Chambord have?

It also boasts 440 rooms and 282 fireplaces, and Henry James thought its skyline 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 records the find; the castle's banded walls were meant to echo the imperial walls of Constantinople.

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

Building began in 1238 under the founder of the last Muslim state in al-Andalus.

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

His descendants kept modifying the site until 1492, and Charles V later dropped a Renaissance palace right 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?

Hamlet was first staged there in 1816, and later Hamlets on site 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?

He was held six years until a Bernese army took the castle in 1536 and freed every prisoner.

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?

It was built between 1846 and 1867 as a family memorial by King Frederick William IV of Prussia.

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

Matsumoto Castle's is one of them and is listed as a National Treasure.

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

The 13th-century site covers more than 30 acres.

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

He wrote that the works needed 400 masons, 2,000 less-skilled workmen, 200 quarrymen and 30 boats bringing stone.

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

By comparison a very small tower like Peveril cost around £200, and a large 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?

Developed in the 13th and 14th centuries, it also dictated the only approach to the gate.

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

Its walls averaged 1.5 metres thick and contained about 1,200 cubic metres of stone.