Belvoir Fortress is a Crusader castle on a hill at the eastern edge of the Issachar Plateau in Israel, standing some 500 meters above the Jordan River valley and about 12 miles south of the Sea of Galilee. Construction began in 1168 under Gilbert of Assailly, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, who purchased the site from a French nobleman named Velos. The castle is an early example of concentric design, with a rectangular outer wall reinforced by square towers surrounding a square inner enclosure, the two separated by a moat as wide as 20 meters and as deep as 12, with vaulted chambers built into both walls to shelter defenders during bombardment. Excavations conducted between 1963 and 1968, and again from 2013 to 2016, have shown the castle's defensive plan to be sophisticated enough to influence European castle design for centuries afterward. It survives today as a ruin within Belvoir National Park, also known as Kochav HaYarden National Park.
Facts
Building Type LocationIssachar Plateau, Lower Galilee, Israel 1 Classification
Standing Status Building Type
Building Type (category) Connections
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Belvoir Fortress
Lead section, first sentence
Crusader castle in northern Israel
Lead section, location sentence
in northern Israel, on a hill on the eastern edge of the Issachar Plateau, on the edge of Lower Galilee 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the Sea of Galilee
Crusader period
The Knights Hospitaller purchased the site from Velos, a French nobleman, in 1168. As soon as the Knights Hospitaller purchased the land, they began construction of castle.
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