Water castle

A water castle is a castle or stately home whose site is entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castles) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore.

Description

Topographically water castles are a type of lowland castle. The term is mainly found in European-language sources, e.g. under its German names of German: Wasserburg or Wasserschloss, but is also used in English-language sources, usually those referring to European castles of this type. Forde-Johnson describes it as "a castle in which water plays a prominent part in the defences..."

There is a further distinction between:

In all cases, water is used as an obstacle to hinder an attacker. That apart, an abundant supply of water was also an advantage during a siege. Such a castle usually had only one entrance, which was via a drawbridge and that could be raised for protection in the event of an attack. To some extent these water castles had a fortress-like character.