Image: Wikimedia Commons

keep

Type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility

Also known as great tower · donjon · castle keep · tribute tower

Instance of: type of building
Subclass of: fortified tower
Part of: fortification
, castle

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

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 castle fall to an adversary. The first keeps were made of timber and formed a key part of the motte-and-bailey castles that emerged in Normandy and Anjou during the 10th century; the design spread to England, Portugal, and Southern Italy and Sicily. As a result of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, use spread into Wales during the second half of the 11th century and into Ireland in the 1170s. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to build stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries, including Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design, and circular shell keeps. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take a decade or more to build.

Overview

All data

30 statements · 17% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Said to be the same as: keep
maschio
Bergfried

On other databases

22 identifiers linking keep across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

17%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 9, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). keep (Q91165). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/keep-Q91165