What makes a castle a keep?

keep, English term corresponding to the French donjon for the strongest portion of the fortification of a castle, the place of last resort in case of siege or attack.



In medieval architecture, a keep (also known as a donjon) is specifically the central, strongest tower or primary fortified residence within a castle complex. While a "castle" refers to the entire fortified enclosure—including the outer walls, towers, gatehouse, and baileys—the keep was designed as the final refuge of last resort if the outer defenses were breached. Keeps were characterized by their massive thickness, often featuring living quarters, a chapel, and storage for a long siege. Famous examples like the White Tower at the Tower of London illustrate how a keep can be a standalone fortress in its own right. Essentially, every keep is part of a castle (or was meant to be), but not every building in a castle is a keep; only the most heavily fortified, multi-story central structure earns that title.

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The keep, located within a courtyard and surrounded by a curtain wall, was the heart of a medieval castle. The hall keep was a low building while the tower keep or donjon could have three or more floors and be topped by turrets and battlements.

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What other rooms were there in a Medieval castle? At the time of Chr tien de Troyes, the rooms where the lord of a castle, his family and his knights lived and ate and slept were in the Keep (called the Donjon), the rectangular tower inside the walls of a castle. This was meant to be the strongest and safest place.

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A castle is fundamentally two things, a residence for a laird, and a place that offers significant protection. If it's only one or the other, that's problematic. A grand building with no defensive features would be a palace, chateau or country house.

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A bailey is the sturdy wall around a castle that keeps invaders out. The bailey of a medieval castle was usually built of stone. You might see a bailey — or the remains of one — if you tour a castle in England or France.

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moat, a depression surrounding a castle, city wall, or other fortification, usually but not always filled with water. The existence of a moat was a natural result of early methods of fortification by earthworks, for the ditch produced by the removal of earth to form a rampart made a valuable part of the defense system.

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The new stone wall of a shell keep, either circular or polygonal, could be 3-3.5 metres (10-12 ft) thick and 4.5-9 metres (15-30 ft) high. Inside were such buildings as a hall, barracks, chapel, accommodation, and storehouses. An excellent example of a surviving shell keep is at the c. 1150 CE Cardiff Castle, Wales.

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The three main types of castles are the motte and bailey castle, the stone keep castle, and the concentric castle.

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The most important person in a castle was the owner —the king, lord, knight or lady.

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Windsor Castle is an official home of Queen Elizabeth II. After the 16th century, castles declined as a mode of defense, mostly because of the invention and improvement of heavy cannons and mortars. This artillery could throw heavy cannonballs with so much force that even strong curtain walls could not hold up.

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As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point. In crusader castles, there is often a gate tower, with the gate passage leading through the base of the tower itself.

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In medieval fortification, a bretèche or brattice is a small balcony with machicolations, usually built over a gate and sometimes in the corners of the fortress' wall, with the purpose of enabling defenders to shoot or throw objects at the attackers huddled under the wall.

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Castles, abandoned farm homes, historic towers—these are among the 103 disused buildings that the Italian government will be giving away for free. But free, of course, does not mean it costs you nothing.

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Most domestic servants would have slept in shared chambers in either the cellars or attics of the castle buildings. There might also be simple buildings outside the castle for herdsmen, mill workers, wood-cutters, and craftspeople such as rope-makers, candle-makers, potters, basket-weavers, and spinners.

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A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from castellanus.

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