Why do castles have so many towers?

Why do castles have so many towers? Uses of a Castle Tower Large towers were used as a keep or bergfried and were usually the strongest point of a castle. Towers were usually built around the gate, a vulnerable point in a castle.

Why do castles have teeth?

These upright projections resemble teeth, bared at invaders to prevent their attempted entries and at allies to show the owner's strength.

What is the strongest point in a castle?

Particularly large towers are often the strongest point of the castle: the keep or the bergfried. As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point.

Why do castles have secret rooms?

These were often used as a means of escape or as a way to move around the castle undetected. The secret passages could be used as an escape route in case of a siege or an invasion, or as a way to move around the castle without being seen by enemies.

What was the weakest point of a castle?

The entrance to the castle was always its weakest point. Drawbridges could be pulled up, preventing access across moats. Tall gate towers meant that defenders could shoot down in safety at attacks below. The main gate or door to the castle was usually a thick, iron-studded wooden door, that was hard to break through.

Why are towers so important in castle defense?

Castle towers were designed to give an unobstructed panorama of the countryside around a fortress, so lookouts could spot oncoming attackers.

Were moats filled with sewage?

It turns out that those fairy tales you read as a child all left out a very important truth: The moats that surrounded medieval castles weren't just useful defenses against attack; they were also open sewers into which the castles' primitive waste disposal systems flushed human excrement and other foul substances.

Why were there so many walls in castles?

Castle walls were also used to help defences in other ways - for example walkways on top of the walls (chemins de rondes) allowed defenders to move quickly around the castle defences. Battlements (crenellations) protected them for enemy fire.

Do castles have toilets?

In the medieval period luxury castles were built with indoor toilets known as 'garderobes', and the waste dropped into a pit below.

How did castles get water?

Water cisterns to collect rainwater were also built within the castle walls; in the case of Dover Castle, these cisterns were in a building attached to and in front of the keep. Pipes carried rainwater from the roof into the cisterns, and it was also possible to get water from a well by using a bucket on a chain.

Why did castles eventually have high towers and wide moats?

The most common use for a moat was defense. What was the use of building a castle with high walls and all manner of defences when an enemy could just roll up war weapons and knock holes in your walls? If war weapons were not feasible, sappers or miners could be deployed to dig beneath the walls and collapse them.

Why do castles have windows?

While castles had windows to let in light and for ventilation, early medieval castles did not have glass windows. Glass was expensive and was heavily taxed, so having glass windows cost the owner of the castle a considerable amount of money. In addition, they could be easily broken, so they were not great for defense.