Castle of Krak de Chevalier

Krak de Chevaliers (Crac des Chevaliers) is a knight fortress in a mixture of French and Arabic. The castle towers at an altitude of about 500 meters above the valley of El Bukeya and occupies a strategic position along the only route from Antioch to Beirut and to the Mediterranean Sea.

The first mention of the castle refers to Muslim chronicles, in which it bears the name “Fortress of the Kurds”. Since 1031, by order of the Emir of Aleppo, a Kurdish garrison was located there. During the First Crusade in 1099, the fortress was captured by Raymond of Saint-Gil, but was abandoned when the Crusaders continued their march to Jerusalem.

Later, the Count of Tripoli gave the castle to the Order of Hospitallers. Since then, no one has been able to besiege Crac de Chevalier for 129 years.

The architecture of the castle deserves special attention. The original plan of the castle has not reached our days. The core of the castle consisted of a huge triangular gallery 270 meters long and 9 meters wide. It was inhabited by the brothers Hospitallers, and it was a fortified barracks, the vaults of which were curved in the form of pointed arches, and on the sides were located five square towers. In the 1170s, a chapel resembling a blind arcade was built in the northeastern tower.