For centuries, castles have held a peculiar sort of sway over imaginative folks. We neglect that they have been initially constructed as fortresses, not merely issues of magnificence. To our modern minds, they are extravagantly arrayed in all manner of issues irrelevant to protection from a sieging army. The turrets, towers, arched doorways, and the intricately carved gargoyles are all linked to maidens and knights and lords and dragons, betrayals and romances, births and deaths, battle and peace. Most of the castles around Europe would nonetheless be in great situation if it weren’t for the sieges they have endured and…