Which part of the castle was heavily defended?

The Keep or Donjon A keep was the big tower and usually the most strongly defended point of a castle before the introduction of concentric defence. Keep was not a term used in the medieval period – the term was applied from the 16th century onwards – instead donjon was used to refer to central towers.



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Some castles were surrounded by deep ditches called moats to stop attackers getting in. Some moats were filled with water, like Caerlaverock Castle near Dumfries (above). Attackers would have to swim or row across the moats to get to the castle.

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The drawbridge is one of the most important parts of a castle and one you've probably heard of before! A drawbridge was a type of bridge between the gatehouse and the opposite side of the moat. During raids, the drawbridge would be raised to keep invaders out.

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The weakest part of the castle's defenses was the entrance. To secure access to the castle, drawbridges, ditches and moats provided physical barriers to entry.

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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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Outer curtain walls Those valiant enough to make it across the moat were faced with the highly forbidding outer curtain wall. Surrounding the courtyards of castles, outer curtain walls were often built to imposing heights of over 30 feet and were thick enough to withstand attacks from battering rams.

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Some knights had the special job of protecting the castle that the king or queen lived in. They would deal with anyone who was attacking the castle or trying to steal things. Together, the knights who protected the castle were called a garrison.

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A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two fortified towers or bastions of a castle, fortress, or town.

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Particularly large towers are often the strongest point of the castle: the keep or the bergfried. As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point.

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Castle of Zafra, Campillo de Duenas This partly restored castle in Spain was built in the late 12th century or early 13th century. It holds the distinction of never being conquered.

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Over the centuries around 23 different siege attempts were made on Edinburgh Castle – making it the most besieged place in Europe.

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1. Malbork Castle is officially the biggest by area. Malbrook Castle is the world's biggest castle. Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork (known as Zamek w Malborku in Polish and Ordensburg Marienburg in German) is a medieval fortress in Malbork, Poland.

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The Gate. The entrance was often the weakest part in a castle. To overcome this, the gatehouse was developed, allowing those inside the castle to control the flow of traffic. Gatehouses were inside the wall and connected with the bridge over the moat, but they were more than just doorways.

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Often, tunnels were dug beneath a castle wall to destabilize and topple it. They supported their tunnels with timbers, which they then burned to collapse the tunnel—and, hopefully, the wall above. To defend themselves, castle dwellers put out a bowl of water and watched for ripples that might indicate digging.

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