Medieval Castles and Fortresses

The Mont Saint-Michel is a small, rocky tidal island in France located in a large bay at the mouth of the Couesnon.
The granite massif of Mont Saint-Michel is crowned with a medieval abbey. It's a table moutain; a remaining of a prehistoric petrified treetop.
Since 1898, the spire of the abbey church has a statue of Saint Michael that protrudes a hundred and seventy meters above the bay. The island is located about 1 kilometer from the coast near the town of Avranches in Normandy . It was originally a tidal island : it was accessible by land at low tidebut at high tide it was surrounded by water. Today a narrow bridge, with shuttle service, runs to the island. Mont Saint-Michel, with its pedestrian streets, is only accessible to pedestrians.

The first text about an abbey is the 9th-century Latin text Revelatio ecclesiae sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba written by a chanoine living at Mont Saint Michel or at the Cathédrale Saint-André d'Avranches. This text was written at a time of power struggle between Brittany and the County of Normandy against Francia as well as during canon law reforms by Roman emperors.

When Christianity expanded to the area, around the 4th century, Mont Tombe, the original name of Mont Saint Michel, was part of the Diocese of Avranches. By the middle of the 6th century, Christianity had a stronger presence in the bay. By this time, Mont Tombe was populated by religious devotees, hermits (probably some Celtic monks) supplied by the curé of Astériac, (Asterix) who took care of the site and led a contemplative life around some oratories. The hermits Saint Pair and Saint Seubilion dedicated one of the oratories to Saint Étienne, midway through the mont and one to Saint Symphorien, at the foot of the rock.

Saint Aubert
In 710, Mont Tombe was renamed Mont Saint Michel au péril de la Mer ("Mount Saint Michael at the peril of the sea) after erecting an oratory to Saint Michael by bishop Saint Aubert of Avranches in 708. According to the legend, Aubert received, during his sleep, three times the order from Saint Michael to erect an oratory on the Mont Tombe. The archangel was reputed to have left his finger mark on Aubert's skull. This skull is displayed at the Saint-Gervais d'Avranches basilica with such a scar on it.

This sanctuary should be, according to the archangel, a replica of the Gargano in Italy (from the 5th century). Aubert had a local religious artifact removed and instead a circular sanctuary built, made of dry stones. Around 708, Aubert sent two monks to get some artifacts from the Italian sanctuary Gargano (a rock with his foot print and a piece of tissue from the altar). During this mission, the March 709 tsunami is supposed to have destroyed the Scissy forest and turned the Mont into an island. On October 16 709, the bishop dedicated the church and put twelve chanoine there. The Mont-Saint-Michel was born.

The remains of the oratory were found in the chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. This sanctuary contained the tomb of Aubert and most likely the artifacts brought from Gargano. The chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre is today under the nave of the abbey-church.

The first buildings became too small and under the Western Roman Empire multiple buildings were added. Charlemagne chose saint Michel as a protector of his empire during the 9th century and tried to have the place renamed Mont-Saint-Michel, but during the Middle Ages it was usually called Saint-Michel-aux-Deux-Tombes (Saint Michel with two tombs) (Mons Sancti Michaelis in periculo maris, in reference to Tombelaine).

History of the abbey
Church of Saint Michel during 9th and 10th centuries
The Mont-Saint-Michel monks, during the first century of their institution, venerated the archangel Michael. The Mont became a place of prayer and study, but the stability period, known as the Neustria, during the reign of Charlemagne ended when he died. As the rest of Gaule was fighting invasions, religion and science found some welcoming in the diocese of Avranches and at the Mont-Saint-Michel.

At first, pilgrims kept coming to the Mont. After the Vikings captured the Mont in 847, the monks departed. But, as an island, it offered some protection for the local population and thus never stayed empty.

After the signature of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo (Gange-Hrólfr "Rollo" Ragnvaldsson de Normandie) started repairing the damages inflicted to the religious buildings. He generously financed the Mont and called back the monks displaced by the war, returning the Mont to its previous condition.

The wealth and support that the Mont suddenly obtained from Rollo started to fundamentally affect its inhabitants, taking them away from their solitary, religious life. After William I of Normandy took over his father's title as Duke of Normandy in 927, he expanded his support toward monasteries until his assassination in 932; but his wealth, from which they benefited, further exacerbated their mundane life style. Because of their generous contributions to the Mont, the Dukes of Brittany Conan 1st, who died in 992, and Geoffrey 1st, who died in 1008, were buried in the Mont as benefactors.

The foundation dates of three castles in Maelienydd, traditionally built by the Mortimers.  However the contemporary evidence suggests that Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d.1240) was far more likely the builder of Cefnllys and Knucklas castles.
The evidence for the foundation of Timboeth by Roger Mortimer in late 1267 and Dolforwyn by Dafydd ap Llywelyn (d.1246) is also put forward.

Studie byla publikována roku 2011 v knize ,,Slánské rozhovory 2010 : Česká husitská reformace historie, osobnosti, teologie, umění" / The study was published in 2011 in books ,,Slánské rozhovory 2010: The Czech Hussite Reformation of History, Personalities, Theology, Art."

Castalla Castle (Alicante, Spain), built between the 11 th and 16 th centuries, is one of the most outstanding fortifications in the province of Alicante, as part of al-Andalus, first, and the Kingdom of Valencia, after. The present work aims to deepen the knowledge of its landscape on a medium scale for a large part of the Middle Ages. In this way, analysing some material (archaeological) and cultural (written) sources, it has been possible to better draw the Castalla Castle landscape in the Foia de Castalla district, a geographic territory located in the north of the province of Alicante, between the 11 th and 15 th centuries and during two different chronocultural periods: Andalusian (11 th century-1244) and Christian (1244-1499).

In this article was made historic, cultural and touristical descriptive analysis of little-known Starosta castle in Halych, which is located in Ivano-Frankivsk region, on the base of using of four groups of characteristics: natural and geographical (morphological features of the monument's construction, hydrological characteristics of the territory, location near from objects of the natural reserve fund, presence in the castle complex handmade recreational forests, landscaped parks, gardens and landscaped gardens, aggregate indicators of the natural and geographical location), historical and cultural (degree of the physical preservation, level of the historical significance , degree of the cultural value, indicator of the architectural and stylistic value, availability of saved elements of historic defense systems), infrastructural (transport accessibility, availability of accommodation facilities, food establishments, museum institutions, specialized souvenir shops and stalls), informational (in-tegration to the tourist routes, organization of tourist promotional campaigns, exhibitions and fairs, availability of informational and advertising data, rank of the coverage in scientific tourism profiles and degree of the saturation of the Internet with tourist information). It was identified main positive and negative points of the potential adaptation of monument for tourism and recreation.
Keywords: Starosta castle, monument, castle complex, fortification.

Engravings Depicting the Polotsk Campaign in 1579 as a Homogeneous Cartographic Composition Th e paper presents seven plans of fortresses (Polotsk, Sokil, Kazyany, Krasne, Turovla, Susza and Sitno) and a map of the principality of Polotsk by Stanisław Pachołowiecki. Th e analysis indicates that plans of fortifi cations and hydrogeologic conditions were integrated into a previously existing operational map of the principality of Polotsk. Th erefore, eight printed maps and plans constitute a joint work that was uniformly fi nished by one author (Stanisław Pachołowiecki or Giovanni Battista Cavalieri). Th e map of the principality of Polotsk features Russian fortifi ca-tions in the form of two-dimensional projections. Th e strongholds were depicted in a reliable manner, both in terms of shape and the number of towers. Such a representation of settlement symbols was an innovative solution in Renaissance carto g-raphy. Not until the 17 th century were such means known and they did not appear on a broader scale until the 1730s.

O.Plamenytska, E.Plamenytska. Kamyanets Podilsky, a Town at the Periphery of the Roman Empire: Urban Order and Fortifications
The subject of the monograph is the influence of the Roman Empire on the urban development of Eastern Europe throughout the first millennium A.D. Architectural and urban construction sites, whose origins can be traced to a time before the emergence of medieval Rus, are bound to be a matter of great interest and importance. One of these ancient sites is the urban complex of the Old Town of Kamyanets Podilsky in Ukraine. According to historic sources, the site can be dated from the period of Dacian Wars (Trajan's Wars) and can be identified as one of the Dacian towns, Klepidava, noted in the “Geography” of Ptolemy (2nd cent. A.D.). The architectural and archeological investigations brought the facts which allowed to link some of the towers of the Old Castle and the Castle Bridge with the period of the Trajan's Wars. The monograph presents the evidence base that made it possible to come to these conclusions.
Key words: Roman Empire, Kamyanets Podilsky, Dacia, Old Town, Castle Bridge, Trajan Wars, Trajan Column, Trajan Bridge.

In this article was made historic, cultural and touristical descriptive analysis of little-known Rakovets castle, which is located in Ivano-Frankivsk region, on the base of using of four groups of characteristics: natural and geographical (morphological features of the monument’s construction, hydrological characteristics of the territory,  location near from objects of the natural reserve fund, presence in the castle complex handmade recreational forests, landscaped parks, gardens and landscaped gardens, aggregate indicators of the natural and geographical location), historical and cultural (degree of the physical preservation, level of the historical significance, degree of the cultural value, indicator of the architectural and stylistic value, availability of saved elements of historic defense systems), infrastructural (transport accessibility, availability of accommodation facilities, food establishments, museum institutions, specialized souvenir shops and stalls), informational (integration to the tourist routes, organization of tourist promotional campaigns, exhibitions and fairs, availability of informational and advertising data, rank of the coverage in scientific tourism profiles and degree of the saturation of the Internet with tourist information). It was identified main positive and negative points of the potential adaptation of monument for tourism and recreation.
Keywords: castle, Rakovets castle, monument, castle complex, fortification.

Dunnottar Castle and church are set upon a rocky headland on the NE coast of Aberdeenshire, about 2 miles S of Stonehaven. It has been thought that the medieval castle has disappeared, while the surviving buildings are largely of the 14 th to 17 th C. However a close inspection of the ruins that cover an area of 3½ acres suggest reality could be very different.
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This paper introduces the theme of a special issue exploring the
connections between castles (broadly defined as medieval fortified
sites) and their landscapes, from archaeological and heritage
perspectives. It includes a brief case study of how some of the
castles in Occitanie, southern France, have been connected with
their landscapes in the construction of Le Pays Cathare within the
context of promoting regional tourism.

Location of Medieval Kutina based on archaeological sites

Archaeological remains of medieval Kutina have not been fully elaborated. Before the establishment of the Moslavina Museum in the 1950s of 20th century, a reconnaissance of the site was carried out in the Moslavina area. In the narrow area of Kutina, the remains of three medieval fortresses were recorded, of which two are still visible today. The exact position of the third one was forgotten due to the urbanization of the city. In addition to the historical review of archaeological research and data on medieval Kutina, this article, reveals the exact position of this third fortress, the so-called Aušovo, although the question of accurate data is still open. Kaštel Kutina (the so-called Aušovo) was located in the park area between the buildings of Centar I and II and it could most likely be the castellum built by Ladislav Roh de Deche in 1470. The movable archaeological finds (from probe research or surface reconnaissance) give us rough but late dating for all three sites from 15th to the middle of 16th century. Such dating places these fortresses at times of intense social and economic turmoil with an increasing Ottoman threat. Were all these fortifications built during the 15th century as suggested by archeological material, or could some of them be the possible remains of the old centers of local estates mentioned under the names of Kutina (Donja, Gornja and Velika), fortifications that could have been erected during the second half of 13th or early 14th centuries? If the remains of the older church (foundation and part of the buttress) under the present parish church of St. Mary of Snow belonged to the church of All Saints mentioned in the middle of 14th century, then this space between the church and Turski stol could be what is mentioned in the charters as villa Kathenna or Great Kutina (Kote(n)nya maior), i.e. the oldest part of medieval Kutina, where the oppidum of Kutina was developed during the 15th century. The passage that Kutina closes is one of the strategic positions of Moslavina Mountain which is probably the reason why the settlement is located in this part along the Kutinica River. In addition to these fortifications, there are several forts of the same type in the wider area that could have formed a particular fortification system.

THE WEAPONRY OF GUILDS IN HERMANNSTADT IN THE 15–16TH CENTURY

By the time of the late middle ages Hermannstadt (Nagyszeben/Cibium/Sibiu) had significant economycal power, in which the local crafts played an important part. In this era the flourishing town faced the threat of raids from the expanding Ottoman Empire. Walls were built and towers were erected: these objects housed the arms, armour and munition necessary for the the defense. Every guild had it’s own tower, where stored their weapons. Several inventories remained from the years of 1478, 1492/93, 1508, 1560, 1567, 1575 and from the second part of the 16th century (without exact date). These lists – espe¬cially the quantities – of weapons and munition can be considered as objective sources, because the defenders had to rely on tthem and to know the accurate number their arms in case of a raid. From these documents the spread of firearms can be thraced from the late middle ages. The town ensured that the guild members can use their weapons properly: in several entries from the account books the magistracy payed for the miliatry trainings (shooting events). There is an example from the 15th century where they use bows for this purpose (bogenschutzen), but later firearms become common. In the inventory of the coach-maker guild in 1508 a target shooting gun (czyl puchsen) can be found. From 1507 and 1509 a target shooting guild (czehis sagittariis cum pixidibus) appears.

This paper presents the results of two different campaigns of archaeological excavations (August 2015 and August 2016) in the medieval castle of Castel Pizigolo (Toano, RE) conducted by Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Department of History and Cultures. This research brought to light a tower, a church and a building, and helped us to define and understand the topography of the settlement. Moreover, the archaeological excavations have highlighted the chronology of the castle, from XII to XV century, with former phases of IX-X century

The Archaeological Site of Veliki Zdenci – Crni Lug, called also "Gradina" (which in Croatian means the place or the ruins of a fort/castle), is located between the southern part of the village of Veliki Zdenci and the Ilova River. The fort is located in the forest called Crni Lug (Black Hirst), south of the hillside where the cemetery is located. This lowland fortification is actually shaped from the southern slope of that hill. The central elevation of the circular ground is about 30 m in diameter and overhangs the surrounding terrain by about 3.5 m. It is surrounded by the three embankments and ditches on the south side, while on the north an elevated “semi-moon-shaped” plateau is situated. The earthen ramparts are preserved at a height of 2.5 to 1.5 m. The width of the defensive ditches is 4-5 m. The system of ditches and ramparts makes the defensive zone of the central elevation from its southern side, while in the north mentioned elevated plate of irregular shape is situated.
In the professional literature, this position is linked to the Zdench castle, which is first mentioned in historical sources in 1272. In Zdenci, in 1474 the Croatian Parliament was held, where important decisions were made about the nobility's obligation to participate in the defense of the country from the Ottomans.
An archaeological trench was opened on the southern part of the central plateau of the fortification. The excavation provided evidences on the ways of building the rampart in the time of the first fortress in the 13th century, and later on the ways of remodelling the small fortification to a larger one in the 15th century. Numerous finds have been found. Finds of luxury tableware from the 15th century suggest that the owner of the fort was a person who kept close watch on the fashion trends of the Central European contemporary nobility.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War Prof. Dr. Jacob Friesen was stationed on Texel as an German officer in the role of Inselkommandant (Island Commander) of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy). The famous archaeologist did its duty and took the opportunity to dig test trenches in the Frisian/Frankish circular fortress of Den Burg, the main village on Texel. He concluded that the history  of Texel was deeply rooted in the Germanic  past.

Houska Castle is an early Gothic castle, 47 kilometres north of Prague, in the Czech Republic. It is one of the best preserved castles of the period. Some notable features of the castle include a predominantly Gothic chapel, green chamber with late-Gothic paintings, and a knight's drawing room.

Houska Castle, and most specifically the chapel, was constructed over a large hole in the ground that is allegedly a "gateway to Hell", which was allegedly so deep no one could see the bottom of it.[6] Animal-human hybrids were reported to have crawled out of it, and dark-winged, otherworldly creatures flew in its vicinity. Legend has it that when construction began in the castle, all of the prisoners that were sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they consented to be lowered by rope into the hole, and report back on what they saw. When the first person was lowered, he began screaming after a few seconds, and when pulled back to the surface he looked as if he had aged 30 years. He had grown wrinkles and his hair had turned white.

According to the Prague Tourism web site, the castle is reputed to have various types of ghosts, "a bullfrog/human creature, a headless horse, and an old woman" as well as the remains of "demonic beasts who escaped the pit".

The castle was not built as a residence or as a protective sanctuary, but was instead built because the hole was thought to be a gateway to hell. Thus, by constructing the Gothic building's defensive walls facing inward, they were able to keep the demons trapped in the lower level's thickest walls closest to the hole of the castle.

Folklore considers this castle to cover one of the gateways to Hell, built to prevent demons (trapped in lower levels) from reaching the rest of the world

Plans to modernize the fortifications of the former castles of the Teutonic Order in Neidenburg and Johannisburg by the Dutch architect Nicolaus de Kemp (1602)
Johannisburg and Neidenburg, erected at the end of the 14th century, are castles combined with small cities at the southern border of the former Land of the Teutonic Order (since 1525 the dukedom of Prussia). At the beginning of the 17th century, the Prussian government planned to modernize the medieval castles and in 1601 engaged the Dutch architect Nicolaus de Kemp to work out drafts for the new fortifications. De Kemp presented three drawings of each castle: a perspective view and a ground plan of the place in the current state as well as the proposition of the conversions to be made. The drawings are especially valuable because they give a very detailed and reliable impression of the castles and the surrounding area (wooden palisades, ditches, houses, city walls etc.) as they appeared in 1601. The third drawing contains de Kemp’s propositions to modernize the castles by using bastions and earthworks. Finally, these plans were never realized.

This pubications deals with the excavation around the caste ruine of Duurstede in Wijk bij Duurstede in the central Netherlands. The excavations were carried uit between 1943 and 1945 by J.G.N. Renaud and comprised of several pits around the castle ruins.  Also the bailey was partly excavated. The results are now for the first time studied in detail and published. Earlier Renaud published some short articles on the research and a plan showing the development of the castle from an isolated brick tower keep to a square castle with round corner towers.  One of the outcomes is that the the oldest part of the castle (the tower keep) is about 50 years older than always thought. Also the buildingsphases are somewhat different from what was presumed earlier. In 1459 the castle became the residence of the bisshop of Utrecht. In the 17th century the castle became derelict.

On one of the highest rocky ledges above the Reka River, just a few kilometers from Famlje Village and near
Škocjan Caves, Školj Castle is today one of the less known castles in Slovenia. For more than a century the castle is
abandoned. Until the 19th century it was among the most interesting castles in Carniola because of its picturesque
location and
architectural design. In this article we present the results of the last architectural history research, based
on study of written archive sources, literature, image sources and castle ruins. The results show the castle’s importance,
that it could be
possible
and would be necessary
to preserve
and to restore
his remains.

Keywords: Školj, Neukhoffell, Neukofell, Noviscoglio, castle, Rauber, Ravbar, Neuhaus, Rossetti,
Dekleva, Johann Weichard Valvasor, Louis François Cassas, Park Škocjanske jame,
Architectural conservation, architectural history

Determining the difference in military or political function of castles is a topic heavily debated between scholars. Traditionally the military function has been studied through the use of historical documents or archaeological research into the outer and tower wall thickness of a castles. However, there is another source of material that enables to study a facet of the military functions of castles; military material to study the defence of the castle of against a siege. To examine the possibilities of military material as a source, a case-study has been performed on the military material excavated at eight castles in the county of Holland dating between 1250-1450. The eighth studied castles were grouped into three morphological types of castles. The castle types used in the thesis, from large to small: square castles, keep towers, and moated sites. To determine if castle was besieged using military material a theoretical framework is proposed for the deposition of military material during various events with a heightened deposition probability. The expected deposition of military objects during peace is low compared to the deposition of military objects during a siege. There is no expected pattern for the assembly of military objects deposited during peace. While, the expected loss of military objects during a siege would show a higher amount of projectiles, hand arms and polearms, depending on the siege method employed. However, during the destruction of the castle as part of the scorched earth tactic or as punishment high amount of military material is expected as well.
Examining the military material at the eight castle, it can be concluded that during sieges and the destruction of castles large amounts of military material were deposited as proposed in the theoretical framework. Moreover, it is possible to determine the siege method deployed. However, only if there can be differentiated between the destruction of a castle and a siege. Furthermore, it can be concluded that there is a differentiation in military role of the three castle types. However, this differentiation is not induced by the difference in morphological features, but by the wealth of the castle lord owning the castle and his willingness to defend the castle.