Summit castle

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A summit castle is a hilltop castle built on a mountain top . The advantages of this strategically chosen point of view consisted on the one hand in the inaccessibility. Attacks on the castle turned out to be difficult, depending on the terrain, even impossible. On the other hand, it was possible to prevent the interior of the castle from being bombarded if the castle was at the highest point in the area. The representative value of the castle was also increased by the special location.

However, there were technical supply difficulties for summit castles: In the absence of sufficiently powerful pumps, a water supply was problematic if there was no source nearby. The creation of castle wells was very complex. The transport of food, farm animals and other goods was also made more difficult by the location. The adverse weather conditions on mountain peaks made life in the castle even more difficult.

Another problem arose from the remoteness of the castles. The move out of armed foot soldiers was hindered by the terrain, even more that of horsemen. The control of the surrounding areas was therefore only inadequately possible.

The Cathars used a number of inaccessible hilltop castles as refuge, such as Montségur Castle , which sits on the top of a steep rocky dome.

Like other hilltop castles, summit castles lost their importance in the course of the Middle Ages. The rise of the cities as centers of economy and politics diminished the value of these castles for trade and domination.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.regionalgeschichte.net ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 9, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.regionalgeschichte.net
  2. ↑ www.badische-seiten.de , accessed on June 9, 2009.