The Crac des Chevaliers, which lies 65 kilometres west of the city of Homs and 75 kilometres south-east of Tartus, has its origins in the 11th century when, as home to a garrison of Kurdish soldiers, in the service of the Emir of Homs, it was known as the Castle of the Kurds (Hosn al-Akrad).
First Crusade
Tancred, a Prince of Antioch and Norman leader of the First Crusade occupied it in 1110 only to be besieged, unsuccessfully five years later by Alp Arslan the Sultan of Aleppo.
The magnificent structure proudly stands high on the Jebel Ansarieh some 650 metres above the plain of Al-Bukeia with the Lebanon Mountains rising to the southwest.
Its strategic importance lay in the fact that it overlooked the Homs Gap, which gave access from the coast to the interior of Syria.
Crac des Chevaliers
The castle, which dominates the landscape, became the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
One of the main difficulties the Crusaders were faced with, in their occupation of the Holy, was their lack of manpower which hampered their ability to defend large sections of territory won in the First Crusade.
Knights Hospitaller
In 1142, this shortage of men prompted Raymond, Count of Tripoli, a vassal state of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, to give control of the mighty Crac des Chevalier to the Knights Hospitaller, which was originally a monastic brotherhood caring for Latin pilgrims in the Holy Land, before developing into a military order.
After a major earthquake in 1170 the Hospitallers were forced to rebuild large sections of the castle while taking the opportunity to made significant improvements to the defensive walls
It had two concentric defensive walls, separated by a moat, surrounding a central keep. Its innovative design allowed the construction of a: “Triangular shaped gallery with ribbed vaults designed like a fortified barracks and flanked by five square towers (Mannheim and Winter). A chapel, financed by King Vladislas of Bohemia, was added in the northwest tower.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A more detailed description of the castle is outwith the scope of this article but perhaps a final comment should be left to UNESCO which said: “The castle is amongst the most extraordinary examples of castle architecture and symbolise the phase of the Crusades in the Holy Land.”
Further unsuccessful attacks were made by Nur ed Ein, Sultan of Damascus in 1153 and Saladin in 1188 before it finally fell to Baybars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria in 1271.
Note:This writer has used the spelling Crac des Chevaliers, which is used by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism. Researchers will also find Krak des Chevaliers used
Sources:
UNESCO World Heritage List, Advisory Body Evaluation, 2006
Saudi Aramco World, The Castles of the Crusaders, May/June 1970
Mannheim &Winter, Jordan, Syria & Lebanon Handbook, Footprint Handbooks 1998, pages 386-391
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