A tower castle is a small

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

that mainly consists of a fortified tower or a tower-like structure that is built on natural ground. It is thus different from the motte-and-bailey castle, which it may resemble, but whose main defensive structure is built on a '' motte'' or artificial hill. The tower castle is occasionally also described as a tower house castle or a tower house. 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 A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

or '' Bergfried''. 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. During the earlier Roman Empire, Roman period it was common for wealthy landowner ...

Literature

* Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (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