Le Destroit fortress

Le Destroit (for alternative names see below) is a ruined medieval fortified road station, built by the Templars[1] of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the early 12th century CE, located on the Mediterranean shore near a site where they later built the Chateau Pelerin castle, today close to the modern town of Atlit, Israel.

Names and etymology

The Frankish name of the fort was Casel Destreiz and le Destroit, with the Latin variants Destrictum and Petra Incisa.[1] The Arabic name of the site is Khirbat Dustray (alternative spelling Khirbet Dustrey).[1] The Hebrew name is Horvat Qarta.[1]

The Frankish name is derived from Latin (districtus and distringere, consisting of the preposition de and the verb stringere, to tighten) via the Gallo-Romance languages, which retained the meaning of 'narrow' and 'restricted' referring to a connecting way or passage, which resulted in the meaning of 'strait'.[2][3][4]

History

The coastal road near Atlit ran through a narrow passage in the rock, making it an ideal location for robbers to ambush pilgrims and other travelers. In 1103, Baldwin I of Jerusalem was wounded by robbers in the area.[5] The tower fortress, which was situated on a ridge above the pass on the east side of the peninsula at Atlit, was built to protect these travelers.[6]

The army led by King Richard I of England camped at the fortress following the recapture of Acre in 1191.[5] However, when the larger Castrum Perigrinorum was completed in 1218, Le Destroit was dismantled by the Crusaders so that it couldn't be used by the Muslim enemy as a staging ground for an attack on the main castle.[6] Denys Pringle indicates 1220 as the year Destroit was destroyed.[1]

Current condition

Today the podium-shaped tower base with rock-cut cisterns, the rock-cut yard containing the stables, as well as the moat can still be seen.[6][1] The remains are cut into the living rock,[6] an aeolian quartz sandstone known in the region as kurkar.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pringle, Denys (1997). Dustray, Khirbat (No. 90). Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 9780521460101. Retrieved 28 March 2022. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ↑ détroit (in French) at cnrtl.fr, Paris: Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales. Accessed 28 March 2022.
  3. ↑ détroit (in French) at dicocitations.com. Accessed 28 March 2022.
  4. ↑ Étymologie de « détroit » (in French) from le Littré via lalanguefrancaise.com. Accessed 28 March 2022.
  5. 1 2 Johns, C.N.; Pringle, Denys (2019). Pilgrims' Castle ('Atlit), David's Tower (Jerusalem) and Qal'at ar-Rabad ('Ajlun): Three Middle Eastern Castles from the Time of the Crusades. Taylor & Francis. pp. 14–15 and 94–98. ISBN 978-0-429-76134-8.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Boas, Adrian (27 September 2006). Archaeology of the Military Orders: A Survey of the Urban Centres, Rural Settlements and Castles of the Military Orders in the Latin East (c.1120-1291). Routledge. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-1-134-42284-5.
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32°42′28″N 34°56′46″E / 32.70778°N 34.94611°E / 32.70778; 34.94611

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