Chillon Castle

Inner courts and outer courts, chapels, cellars, dungeons, together with chambers and staircases cut out of the thickness of the walls, drawbridges, and underground passages, all of which seem somewhat romantic in stories, but which were exceedingly necessary and matter-of-fact means of protection when they were built.

For the site of a castle, a noble sometimes chose an island in a lake, like the famous Castle of Chillon in Lake Geneva, or a low, swampy place that an enemy would find difficult to reach.

But he generally preferred the bank of a river or some high, rocky location.

One of the most famous castles was the Château Gaillard, or the Saucy Castle, which was built in Normandy by Richard the Lionhearted in the days when kings of England still held possessions in France.

They had massive stone walls and towers, moats, or wide deep ditches filled with water, inner courts and outer courts, chapels, cellars, dungeons, together with chambers and staircases cut out of the thickness of the walls, drawbridges, and underground passages, all of which seem somewhat romantic in stories, but which were exceedingly necessary and matter-of-fact means of protection when they were built.

For the site of a castle, a noble sometimes chose an island in a lake, like the famous castle of Chillon in Lake Geneva, or a low, swampy place that an enemy would find difficult to reach, but he generally preferred the bank of a river or some high, rocky location.

One of the most famous castles was the Château Gaillard, or the Saucy Castle, which was built in Normandy by Richard the Lionhearted in the days when kings of England still held possessions in France.

It stood on a narrow promontory 300 feet above the River Seine, with a deep valley on either hand.