The castles of Europe are some of the most amazing things we’ve inherited from historyBetween 75,000 and 100,000 castles were built in Western Europe during the medieval period, with around 1,700 in England and Wales alone, and roughly 14,000 in German-speaking areas...Most of them rose between the 9th and 15th centuries after the collapse of centralized Roman authority and the rise of fragmented feudal power.As attacking armies grew more sophisticated, so did the walls meant to stop them. The c