Le Destroit
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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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Pringle, Denys (1997). Dustray, Khirbat (No. 90). Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 9780521460101. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ détroit (in French) at cnrtl.fr, Paris: Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales. Accessed 28 March 2022.
- ^ détroit (in French) at dicocitations.com. Accessed 28 March 2022.
- ^ Étymologie de « détroit » (in French) from le Littré via lalanguefrancaise.com. Accessed 28 March 2022.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b c d 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.
32°42′28″N 34°56′46″E / 32.70778°N 34.94611°E
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