Editing Castle (section)

=== 13th to 15th centuries ===
[[File:Crac des chevaliers syria.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.7|alt=A stone castle with two high curtain walls, one within the other. They are crenelated and studded with projecting towers, both rectangular and rounded. The castle is on a promontory high above the surrounding landscape.|[[Krak des Chevaliers]] in [[Syria]] is a concentric castle built with both rectangular and rounded towers. It is one of the best-preserved Crusader castles.<ref>{{citation|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1229|title=Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din|publisher=[[UNESCO]]|access-date=2009-10-20|archive-date=2019-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202123107/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1229|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

In the early 13th&nbsp;century, Crusader castles were mostly built by [[Military order (society)|Military Orders]] including the [[Knights Hospitaller]], [[Knights Templar]], and [[Knights of the Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]]. The orders were responsible for the foundation of sites such as [[Krak des Chevaliers]], [[Margat]], and [[Belvoir Fortress (Israel)|Belvoir]]. Design varied not just between orders, but between individual castles, though it was common for those founded in this period to have concentric defences.<ref name="Cathcart King 83">{{harvnb|Cathcart King|1988|p=83}}</ref>

The concept, which originated in castles such as Krak des Chevaliers, was to remove the reliance on a central strongpoint and to emphasise the defence of the curtain walls. There would be multiple rings of defensive walls, one inside the other, with the inner ring rising above the outer so that its field of fire was not completely obscured. If assailants made it past the first line of defence they would be caught in the killing ground between the inner and outer walls and have to assault the second wall.<ref name="Friar 77">{{harvnb|Friar|2003|p=77}}</ref>

Concentric castles were widely copied across Europe, for instance when [[Edward I of England]]&nbsp;– who had himself been on Crusade&nbsp;– built castles in Wales in the late 13th&nbsp;century, four of the eight he founded had a concentric design.<ref name="Cathcart King 83"/><ref name="Friar 77"/> Not all the features of the Crusader castles from the 13th&nbsp;century were emulated in Europe. For instance, it was common in Crusader castles to have the main gate in the side of a tower and for there to be two turns in the passageway, lengthening the time it took for someone to reach the outer enclosure. It is rare for this [[bent entrance]] to be found in Europe.<ref name="Cathcart King 83"/>

[[File:SDJ Harlech Castle Gatehouse.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Two cylindrical stone towers flanking a gateway, and behind them two larger cylindrical towers. A path leads up to the gateway and curtain walls are attached to the towers.|The design of Edward&nbsp;I's [[Harlech Castle]] (built in the 1280s) in North Wales was influenced by his experience of the Crusades.]]
One of the effects of the [[Livonian Crusade]] in the Baltic was the introduction of stone and brick fortifications. Although there were hundreds of wooden castles in [[Prussia]] and [[Livonia]], the use of bricks and mortar was unknown in the region before the Crusaders. Until the 13th century and start of the 14th centuries, their design was heterogeneous, however this period saw the emergence of a standard plan in the region: a square plan, with four wings around a central courtyard.<ref>{{harvnb|Ekdahl|2006|p=214}}</ref> It was common for castles in the East to have arrowslits in the curtain wall at multiple levels; contemporary builders in Europe were wary of this as they believed it weakened the wall. Arrowslits did not compromise the wall's strength, but it was not until Edward I's programme of castle building that they were widely adopted in Europe.<ref name="Cathcart King 84"/>

The Crusades also led to the introduction of [[machicolation]]s into Western architecture. Until the 13th&nbsp;century, the tops of towers had been surrounded by wooden galleries, allowing defenders to drop objects on assailants below. Although machicolations performed the same purpose as the wooden galleries, they were probably an Eastern invention rather than an evolution of the wooden form. Machicolations were used in the East long before the arrival of the Crusaders, and perhaps as early as the first half of the 8th&nbsp;century in Syria.<ref>{{harvnb|Cathcart King|1988|pp=84–87}}</ref>

The greatest period of castle building in Spain was in the 11th to 13th&nbsp;centuries, and they were most commonly found in the disputed borders between Christian and Muslim lands. Conflict and interaction between the two groups led to an exchange of architectural ideas, and Spanish Christians adopted the use of detached towers. The Spanish [[Reconquista]], driving the Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula, was complete in 1492.<ref name="Burton 241-243"/>

[[File:Gozo - Rabat - Zitatelle - N.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|The northern walls of the [[Cittadella (Gozo)|Gran Castello]] in [[Gozo]], Malta, were built in the 15th century.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Sacra Militia|last=Cassar|first=George|date=2014|title=Defending a Mediterranean island outpost of the Spanish Empire – the case of Malta|url=https://www.academia.edu/23266199|issue=13|pages=59–68|access-date=2019-06-30|archive-date=2021-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831202925/https://www.academia.edu/23266199|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Although France has been described as "the heartland of medieval architecture", the English were at the forefront of castle architecture in the 12th&nbsp;century. French historian François Gebelin wrote: "The great revival in military architecture was led, as one would naturally expect, by the powerful kings and princes of the time; by the sons of William the Conqueror and their descendants, the [[Plantagenet]]s, when they became dukes of [[Normandy]]. These were the men who built all the most typical twelfth-century<!--please do not change this to 12th-century, this is how the original source wrote it, and since this is a quote it should not change --> fortified castles remaining today".<ref>{{harvnb|Gebelin|1964|pp=43, 47}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Cathcart King|1988|p=91}}</ref> Despite this, by the beginning of the 15th&nbsp;century, the rate of castle construction in England and Wales went into decline. The new castles were generally of a lighter build than earlier structures and presented few innovations, although strong sites were still created such as that of [[Raglan Castle|Raglan]] in Wales. At the same time, French castle architecture came to the fore and led the way in the field of medieval fortifications. Across Europe&nbsp;– particularly the Baltic, Germany, and Scotland&nbsp;– castles were built well into the 16th&nbsp;century.<ref>{{harvnb|Cathcart King|1988|pp=159–160}}</ref>