Le Destroit
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.
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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
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- ↑ a b c d e f Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ 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 Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- Crusader castles
- Castles and fortifications of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Castles in Israel
- Castles and fortifications of the Knights Templar
- Principality of Galilee
- 12th-century establishments in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Disestablishments in the Kingdom of Jerusalem