Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	oldest castle

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T O P I C R E V I E W
dlsaucy My name is DL I m a 53 year young female and I am interested in finding out what the oldest castle and/or castles in the world are. I am just new to this topic. Castles have always fascinated me. Now that my children are grown I have a special interest in them. I am also interested in any and all information on learning for a beginner thank you and have a great day.
DL
ipflo hi
it depends on how you define castle
in 'castles, a history and guide' from allen brown, michael prestwich and charles coulson (1980), they say Doué-la-fontaine in the french district of marne-et-loire is the oldest known castle of europe.
but i also remember that in the guinnes book of records it is said that some castle in yemen is the oldest castle of the world.
but others say the oldest castle dates from the stone ages, like castle urmitz in the rhine region, germany (you have to think at a hill with some wooden buildings and wooden palissade)
Erik Schmidt The earliest true castles were wooden, so they have long since rotted away, only in some cases leaving earthworks to see.
But nobody really knows, and as ipflo said, it really depends on your definition of a castle.
Erik
ipflo on http://www.yourcoastalconnection.com/trivia-real-estate.asp i found the name of the castle in yemen:
"Q Where is the world's oldest castle located?

A The castle at Gomdan, Yemon, dating from before A.D. 100, is considered the oldest castle; it originally had 20 stories."
unfortunately i couldn't find a picture of the castle.
you can find a picture of Doué-la-fontaine on http://www.castles.org/architecture/architecture_3.htm
you can find info on the oldest (remanining) castle of japan on http://www.jinjapan.org/atlas/architecture/arc12.html
http://www.mcci.or.jp/dantai/convention/index-e02.htm
on this site is also a japanese castle of which it is said that it is the oldest of japan
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/RI/chubu/aichi/inuyama/inuyama.html
you can see a picture of the oldest castle of finland on
http://www.muuka.com/finnishpumpkin/castles/castle.html
and a picture of the oldest castle of slovenia you can find at http://www.slovenia-tourism.si/castles/ang-grad-bled.htm
ipflo i found some more info on gomdan on http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/qanda/answers.htm:
"My daughter was given a puzzler in school: where is the world's oldest castle found? The answer given was "Gomdan, Yemen". We have searched through the web and so far we have found no reference to it. Is there such a place? Or was it a mistake?

From: Blair Stannard, Ottawa, Canada
The name of the castle (palace) is Gumdan. It is in the 2,000-year-old city of Sana'a - capital of Yemen. It was built between 200 AD and 300 AD as a royal residence. The citadel of Al-Qasr, in Sana'a (Yemen), was erected on an ancient Sabaean site. In the 3rd century A D , the new royal residence, known as the Gumdan Palace, was constructed outside and to the west of the citadel. The city of Sana'a grew around the public buildings, which were erected first in the east and later towards the west. A nice photo of the old city of Sana'a can be found at: http://members.aol.com/yalnet/sanaaa1.jpg"
jefferywinkler Your question is unanswerable since there is no really strict definition of the word "castle". Maiden Castle in England is an iron age earthwork that dates from around 700 B.C. but most people would say that that doesn't count as a castle. So really, there's no answer to your question.
Merlin If you at least define 'castle' as a something medieval (as we normaly do here at CQ), then you'll have to look at the 6th - 9th centuries AD in Europe. The earliest fortified structures that were used like the castles of the high middle ages were the remains of buildings from the late roman empire: Watchtowers, Forts or even Theaters. In most cases they were altered and newly fortified to suit the demands of their new owners. An example: A roman fort near the Rhine (and there have been hundreds of them) has fallen in ruins during the german attacks of the 4th and 5th centuries, but the outer walls are still strong enough to protect the newly erected wooden house of a german nobleman inside. Some generations later, the noble family will perhabs take the remaining stones from the old fort and build a new castle on a hilltop not far away.
So, the developement of castles was a slow process and you'll never ever find "the oldest castle".