Jump to content

List of Crusader castles

From Catholicism Wiki
File:Crac des chevaliers syria.jpeg
Krak des Chevaliers was built during the 12th and 13th centuries by the Knights Hospitaller with later additions by the Mamluks. It is a World Heritage Site. 1

This is a list of castles in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, founded or occupied during the Crusades. For crusader castles in Poland and the Baltic states, see Ordensburg.

There were two major phases of the deliberate destruction (slighting) of Crusader castles: in 1187 by Saladin and after 1260 by the Mamluks. The intention was often to prevent the castles being reused by the Crusaders.[1]

Of the architecture built by the Crusaders, castles have received more scholarly attention than other forms, such as ecclesiastical architecture.[1]

Crusader states

Geographic location on today's map

  • Kingdom of Cyprus: Island of Cyprus (north and south)
  • County of Edessa: south-east Turkey
  • Principality of Antioch: north-west Syria, southern Turkey
  • County of Tripoli: northern Lebanon, north-west Syria
  • Kingdom of Jerusalem
    • Lordship of Sidon: central Lebanon
    • Principality of Galilee: northern Israel, southern Lebanon, southwest Syria
    • County of Jaffa and Ascalon: southern Israel, eastern Egypt
    • Lordship of Oultrejordain: south-west Jordan

Crusader castles by modern states

Cyprus

Egypt

  • Castle of Saladin, Pharaoh's Island

Greece

Israel, Palestine and the Golan Heights

West Bank and Golan Heights sites are marked as such.

  • Acre (Akko) – fortified city
  • Aqua Bella, now Ein Hemed – Crusader fortified farm; national park
  • Arsuf, also known as Arsur or Apollonia – fortified city and citadel, stronghold of the Lordship of Arsuf; national park
  • Ashkelon – fortified city
  • Belinas or Caesarea Philippi (Banias) – fortified city, Golan Heights
  • Belmont – ruins of Crusader castle in Kibbutz Tzova
  • Belveer – Crusader castle of which no traces remain; national park
  • Belvoir Castle; Kochav HaYarden National Park
  • Bet Shean – castle ruins next to ancient town, stronghold of the Lordship of Bethsan. Second castle on the tell.
  • Bethaatap, Arabic: Bayt 'Ittab (Beit Itab) – fortified manor (maison forte)
  • Beth Gibelin at Eleutheropolis – castle ruins next to ancient town, stronghold of the Lordship of Beth Gibelin; national park
  • Blanchegarde at Tell es-Safi – castle, seat of a lordship at biblical tell
  • Caco or Cacho Castle, Qaqun; rebuilt by Baybars; national park
  • Caesarea (Maritima), stronghold of the Lordship of Caesarea – fortified port city; national park
  • Cafarlet (Hebrew: HaBonim, Arabic: Kafr Lam) – ruins of Umayyad fort reused by the Crusaders
  • Calansue, Hospitaller castle
  • Casal Imbert – at Achziv (formerly Az-Zeeb until 1948) – Crusader "new town" with tower; nothing discernible at present
  • Casel des Plains – Azor; ruins of Crusader tower; inside town
  • Castellum Beleismum – tower on biblical Tel Dothan, West Bank
  • Castellum Beroart – the Minat al-Qal'a Umayyad fort reused by the Crusaders; at Ashdod
  • Castellum Regis; castle, now inside village of Mi'ilya
  • Castellum Rogerii Langobardi – castle at Umm Khalid/Netaniya[2]
  • Caymont at Tel Yokneam, seat of lordship
  • Chastel Hernaut or Arnoul, Latin: Castellum Arnaldi – castle at Yalu[2][3]
  • Chastel Neuf or Castellum Novum outside Margaliot, castle, rebuilt in Ottoman time (Qal'at Hunin)
  • Chastelet (Vadum Iacob), castle ruin by Jacob's Ford: see Battle of Jacob's Ford; also known as Vadum Iacob, le Chastelez, Ateret, Qasr al-'Atra
  • Château Pèlerin, also known as Atlit Castle and Castle Pilgrim; off-reach military base
  • Cisterna Rubea or Maldoim, Templar castle, West Bank
  • Destroit, Le, near Atlit
  • Forbelet Castle at Taibe, Galilee; battle site near the Hospitaller castle
  • Ibelin, near Yavne
  • Jaffa, fortified port town
  • Judin Castle at Khirbat Jiddin or Yehiam Fortress – Crusader castle, rebuilt in the 18th century; national park
  • Latrun, ruins of Toron des Chevaliers castle
  • Kastel, on a hilltop next to Mevasseret, by the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road
  • Merle - fortified enclosure, Arabic name: Burj al-Habis and Qal'at al-Tantura,[2] at Dor/Tantura
  • Mirabel, in Hebrew: Migdal Tsedek, stronghold of the Lordship of Mirabel
  • Montfort; inside national park
  • Qula, Hospitaller tower and vaulted structure
  • Ramla, stronghold of the Lordship of Ramla
  • Safed citadel, Crusader and Mamluk castle
  • St Elias, Castle of (Castrum Sancti Helie), ruins at Taybeh, West Bank
  • Saforie, le or Sepphoris (Latin), Saffuriya (Arabic): tower; national park
  • Tel Hanaton – fortified farm, tower
  • Tiberias – fortified Crusader city immediately north of abandoned city established in Roman times; on the shore of the Sea of Galilee
  • Titura/Tittora at Modi'in, castle ruins
  • Tour Rouge or Turris Rubea at Burgata, Sharon plain – Arabic: Burj al-Ahmar, Hebrew: Hurvat Burgata. The site of a later Muslim village built around the ruined keep.[4][5]
  • Turris Salinarum at Tel Taninim – Crusader tower, the only remains of the castle

Site not identified

  • Gaza - a castle built by King Baldwin III in 1149-50 "on a hill" was handed over to and held by the Templars

Jordan

Doubtful proposals

Discarded proposals

  • Jarash: the Temple of Artemis was reused as a castle by the Damascenes and destroyed by Baldwin II of Jerusalem, was therefore not used by the Crusaders.[9]

Lebanon

Syria

Discarded proposals

Turkey

Crusader castles from modern-day Turkey were mainly built by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (1198–1375) and two Crusader states, the Principality of Antioch (1198–1268) and the County of Edessa (1198–1144).

See also

  • List of castles
  • List of castles in Jordan
  • Ordensburg

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Pringle 1997, p. 6.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Ellenblum, Ronnie (2007). Crusader Castles and Modern Histories. Cambridge University Press. p. 173. ISBN 9781139462556. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  3. Back to citation Pringle 1997, p. 107.
  4. Back to citation Pringle, Denys (1986). The Red Tower (al-Burj al-Ahmar): Settlement in the Plain of Sharon at the Time of the Crusaders and Mamluks, A.D. 1099–1516. London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.
  5. Back to citation Marom, Roy (2026). Settled Land: The Arab Countryside in Israel/Palestine (in Hebrew). Ra'anana: Lamda Scholarship, The Open University of Israel Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-965-06-1769-1.
  6. Back to citation Husseini, Rana (December 18, 2016). "Death toll in Karak attacks rises to 14, including four terrorists". Jordan Times. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  7. Back to citation Pringle 1997, p. 98.
  8. Back to citation Pringle 1997, p. 105.
  9. Back to citation Pringle 1997, p. 2.
  10. Back to citation Belhacem
  11. Back to citation "Qalaat Areimeh | Monuments of Syria أوابد سورية". monumentsofsyria.com.
  12. Back to citation "Burj al-Sabi". Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  13. Back to citation "Castles.nl - Cursat Castle". www.castles.nl.
  14. Back to citation Ravanda Castle
  15. Back to citation Trapesac castle
  16. Back to citation Tumlu

Bibliography

  • Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521460101.
Retrieved from "https://catholicism.wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Crusader_castles&oldid=179874"