Water castle

Plan of Doorwerth Castle (Gelderland, the Netherlands)
Bodiam Castle (Sussex, England)
Mespelbrunn Castle (Bavaria, Germany)

A water castle, sometimes water-castle,[a] is a castle where natural or artificial water is part of its defences.[2][3] It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle studies, mainly German Burgenkunde.[4][5][6] When stately homes were built in such a location, or a Wasserburg was later rebuilt as a residential manor, the German term becomes Wasserschloss, lit. "water palace/manor".

  1. ^ Gothein (2014), pp. 22, 52, etc.
  2. ^ Forde-Johnston, James L. (1979). Great Medieval Castles of Britain. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0-370-30236-2.
  3. ^ Lepage (2023), p. 331: "Water castle: A medieval castle in which natural or artificial water was part of the defences."
  4. ^ Kaufmann & Kaufmann (2004), p. 229.
  5. ^ 12 Wonderful Water Castles at theworldgeography.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  6. ^ Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History (2005), p. 44.


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