Amouda
Encyclopedia
The castle of Amouda is a crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia , also known as the Cilician Armenia, Kingdom of Cilician Armenia or New Armenia, was an independent principality formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia...

 (in Osmaniye Province
Osmaniye Province
Osmaniye Province is a Turkish province located in southern Turkey. It became a province in 1996. The province was part of Adana Province. It covers an area of 3,767 km² and has a population of 479,221 . The province is situated in Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region.The...

 of modern-day Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

). The castle was granted to the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

  in 1212 (Barber 2008) and rebuilt by them in the 13th century to serve as their local headquarter in Armenia. It also earned revenue for the Teutonic Order from the surrounding land. According to contemporary sources (Wilbrand van Oldenburg
Wilbrand van Oldenburg
Wilbrand van Oldenburg was a bishop of Paderborn and of Utrecht.-Family:Wilbrand was the son of Henry II, Count of Oldenburg-Wildeshausen and Beatrix of Hallermund, daughter of Wilbrand I, Count of Loccum-Hallermund. His uncle Gerhard of Oldenburg was bishop of Osnabrück from 1192 to 1216 and...

), the castle provided shelter for 2000 people during an invasion by the Mamluks.

Architecture

Rather than typically Armenian (such as at Yılankale
Yilankale
Yılankale, Yilan, Ilan-kale, or Castle of the Snakes is a large medieval crusader castle located east of Adana in modern Turkey, built on a rocky hill overlooking the east bank of the Ceyhan river...


or Lampron
Lampron
Lampron - is a castle near the town of Çamlıyayla in Mersin Province, Turkey. While part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the Middle Ages, the castle was known as Lampron and was the ancestral home of the Armenian Hethumid princes...

), the design of Amouda is similar to the Teutonic Knights's castle at Montfort with a keep
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 residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

guarding the entrance (Molin 2001).
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