Château Pèlerin
| Château Pèlerin | ||
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 Atlit fortress (Château Pelerin) |
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| Alternative name (s): | Chastel Pelerin, Castrum peregrinorum, pilgrims' castle, fortress Atlit | |
| Creation time : | 1218 | |
| Castle type : | Rock castle | |
| Place: | Atlit | |
| Geographical location | 32 ° 42 ′ 19 ″ N , 34 ° 56 ′ 2 ″ E | |
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Château Pèlerin (also called Chastel Pelerin , Latin Castrum peregrinorum , pilgrim's castle , Burg Pelerin or fortress Atlit ) is a crusader castle in the immediate vicinity of the village of Atlit in Israel . The castle was built in 1218 by the Knights Templar . On the mainland, Château Pèlerin was the last Crusader fortress in the Holy Land and the only one that was never conquered by an enemy. On August 14, 1291 the Templars gave up the castle and withdrew to Cyprus .
location
The crusader castle Pèlerin is located on the Israeli Carmel coast at the foot of the Carmel Mountains , about 20 km south of Haifa on a rocky peninsula.
history
In February 1218, during the Fifth Crusade , the Templars began building the castle on the ruins of an ancient Phoenician settlement. It was supposed to replace the older castle Le Destroit , which was a little further inland from the coast. Many participants in the Fifth Crusade took part in the construction work, including Walter II of Avesnes .
Rule of the Crusaders
Despite the frequent sieges under the rule of the Knights Templar, the Château Pèlerin could never be conquered by an enemy because of its excellent location and construction and because of the possibility of supplying the castle via the sea. In 1220 the fortress was besieged by the Ayyubids under the command of al-Muʿazzam , the brother of Sultan al-Kamil . During the siege by the Mamluks under Sultan Baibars in 1265, the settlement of Atlit was destroyed. After the conquest of Acre on May 18, 1291 by the Mamluks under Sultan Chalil , the Kingdom of Jerusalem collapsed and the Templars lost their role as protectors of pilgrims and defenders of the holy land. The defenders of Akkon who managed to escape fled to Cyprus or withdrew to the Château Pèlerin. The castle could only be supplied from the sea now. The Templars were forced to evacuate the last great Crusader fortress in the Holy Land between August 3, 1291 and August 14, 1291. Only the waterless island of Aruad remained in the possession of the order until September 28, 1302 .
Rule of the Mamluks and Ottomans
The Château Pèlerin was not destroyed by the Mamluks, as was normal practice when conquering a crusader castle. It remained in good condition for centuries until it was damaged by an earthquake in 1837. Ibrahim Pasha used the castle as a quarry in 1840 to extract building materials for Acre.
British League of Nations mandate for Palestine
A major excavation funded by the British Mandate was carried out by CN Johns between 1930 and 1934. The castle was part of the Atlit refugee camp, where the British authorities interned Jewish immigrants (see Aliyah ) who came to Palestine illegally . On October 10, 1945, the internees were liberated from the Hagana .
Israel
The castle is now a restricted military area . It is used by commando units of the Israeli Navy as a training ground.
investment
Two walls and a shallow moat at sea level sealed the fortress from the land. The outer walls were approximately 15 m high and 6 m thick, additionally reinforced with three rectangular towers and a platform for the artillery on the roof. The inner walls were about 30 m high and 12 m thick, with two rectangular towers, one north and one south, each about 34 m high. Since the inner wall was taller than the outer, the defenders were able to shoot targets over the first wall. This enabled better protection from the attack by the besiegers. Part of the strategic equipment of the castle was a sheltered harbor on the south side of the peninsula. There were three freshwater wells within the fortifications.
At Château Pèlerin, a crew of up to 4,000 men defied the attackers during a siege. The settlement of Atlit, which arose outside the walls of the castle, was later fortified as well. The dominant position of the castle in the surrounding area and on the coastal road made it possible to protect the pilgrims and levy duties and taxes to cover the running costs of the castle. The castle was probably named after the pilgrims ( French pèlerin, pilgrims ) who volunteered their work during the construction.
Reception - Castrum Peregrini
In December 1940, Gisèle van Waterschoot van der Gracht rented the third floor of a house at 401 Herengracht in Amsterdam . During this time she also met Wolfgang Frommel . He sought protection from National Socialist persecution for himself and two Jewish students from the Quaker School in Eerde . Gisèle van Waterschoot offered her apartment at 401 Herengracht for this. The new (co) residents gave it the code name Castrum Peregrini because this pilgrimage castle had never been taken. It seemed to them a good omen for their hiding place, in which they could indeed survive unscathed until the end of World War II.
literature
- Jonathan Riley-Smith: The Crusades. A short history . Athlone 1987, ISBN 0-485-11305-8 .
- David Nicolle : Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1192-1302 . Osprey Publishing 2005, ISBN 1-84176-827-8 .
- Hugh Kennedy: Crusader Castles . Cambridge University Press 2001, ISBN 0-521-79913-9 .
- CN Johns, Denys Pringle (eds.): Pilgrims' castle ('Atlit), David's Tower (Jerusalem), and Qal'atar-Rabad (' Ajlun). Three Middle Eastern castles from the time of the Crusades. Ashgate Variorum (Variorum collected studies series, 579), Aldershot 1997, ISBN 0-86078-627-7 .
- Hans Wolfram Kessler / Konrad Kessler: Knights in the Holy Land: Crusader sites in Israel . Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8053-4552-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Marion Melville: La vie des Templiers. Gallimard 1974.
- ^ House of Gisèle - History