List of Crusader castles

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.

map of the Crusader States
Detailed map of the Crusader states at the time of maximum territorial extent. The map shows more than 600 identified medieval Crusader, Armenian and Muslim fortified sites in the Holy Land.
Sidon's Sea Castle built by the crusaders as a fortress of the Holy Land in Sidon, Lebanon.

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.[2]

Of the architecture built by the Crusaders, castles have received more scholarly attention than other forms, such as ecclesiastical architecture.[2]

Crusader states

Main article: Crusader states

Geographic location on today's map

Crusader castles by modern states

Cyprus

Kyrenia Castle

Egypt

  • Castle of Saladin, Pharaoh's Island

Greece

The Grandmasters Palace of the Knights on Rodos island
The Grandmasters Palace of the Knights on Rhodes island

Israel, Palestine and the Golan Heights

The remains of Belvoir Castle
Monfort castle

West Bank and Golan Heights sites are msrked 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[3]
  • Caymont at Tel Yokneam, seat of lordship
  • Chastel Hernaut or Arnoul, Latin: Castellum Arnaldi – castle at Yalu[3][4]
  • 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,[3] 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.[5][6]
  • Turris Salinarum at Tel Taninim – Crusader tower, the only remains of the castle

Site not identified

Jordan

Montreal (Shaubak)
Kerak

Doubtful proposals

  • Aqaba – doubtful, no traces found; castle on Ile de Graye might have been meant instead
  • Diban Castle 31°30′7″N 35°46′36″E / 31.50194°N 35.77667°E / 31.50194; 35.77667
  • Hisban Crusader Castle

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.[10]

Lebanon

Crusader castle in the village of Toron, Lebanon

Syria

The remains of Margat

Discarded proposals

  • Qasr Bardawil, wrongly identified for a while as the Castle of al-Al

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).

The ruins of Bagras Castle, viewed from the southeast
The ruins of Amouda Castle

See also

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

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crusader castles.
  1. ^ Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din, UNESCO, retrieved 2010-11-08
  2. ^ a b Pringle 1997, p. 6.
  3. ^ a b c Ellenblum, Ronnie (2007). Crusader Castles and Modern Histories. Cambridge University Press. p. 173. ISBN 9781139462556. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  4. ^ Pringle 1997, p. 107.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Husseini, Rana (December 18, 2016). "Death toll in Karak attacks rises to 14, including four terrorists". Jordan Times. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  8. ^ Pringle 1997, p. 98.
  9. ^ Pringle 1997, p. 105.
  10. ^ Pringle 1997, p. 2.
  11. ^ Belhacem
  12. ^ "Qalaat Areimeh | Monuments of Syria أوابد سورية". monumentsofsyria.com.
  13. ^ "Burj al-Sabi". Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  14. ^ "Castles.nl - Cursat Castle". www.castles.nl.
  15. ^ Ravanda Castle
  16. ^ Trapesac castle
  17. ^ Tumlu

Bibliography

  • Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521460101.
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