A tower castle is a small castle that mainly consists of a

fortified tower A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and fu ...

or a tower-like structure that is built on natural ground. It is thus different from the

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

, which it may resemble, but whose main defensive structure is built on a ''

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

'' or artificial hill. The tower castle is occasionally also described as a tower house castle or a

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

. Sometimes, during the development of a castle, it might be converted from a tower castle to a motte-and-bailey type, if the initial, ground level site is later remodelled by the construction of an artificial mound for the keep or ''

Bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...

''. The habitable but also fortified tower castle became the permanent private residence of numerous lords during the 11th and 12th centuries. Since many tower castles had at least a few additional structures such as a curtain wall, often only a few metres long, its overlap with an "ordinary" castle is fluid, as is its transition to the

fortified house A fortified house or fortified mansion is a type of building which developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, generally with significant fortifications added. United States In the United States, historically a fortified house was often calle ...

Literature

* Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich,

Barbara Schock-Werner Barbara Schock-Werner (born 23 July 1947, Ludwigsburg) is a German architect, and was until her retirement end of August 2012 the master builder at Cologne Cathedral with overall responsibility for conservation and restoration work. With the offi ...

(eds.): ''Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen''. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart, 2004, , pp. 248–249. {{Authority control Castles by type Fortified towers by type

See also

Literature