The Master Tower

Going further the stable, where we can imagine some donkey and some sheep, we find again the holes of the beams that indicate us that there is a second floor: the soldiers' floor. And from the roof of the soldiers' apartment one can get to the door of the 'Master Tower'.

It is possible that the tower is the oldest element, or event previously constructed, of the castle. Throughout the different times, the tower has had different functions.

During the first times, the towers were used to watch over a territory and protect the people living there; if the Muslims never entered the castle, everyone - lords and people of the town - would hide in this tower. The towers could lodge in their interior a reduced number of people, who could lock themselves with some valuable objects to wait until the attack was over. Once the door was closed, it was very difficult to enter the tower; in addition, the existence of a small cistern in the lowest floor, and a certain amount of emergency provisions kept in other floors, would allow the people inside to survive during some time.

Its structure fits perfectly to these requirements. A door located 7 or 8 meters above the ground was the only important entrance, with exception of the small window of the upper floor. The access to the door was reached through a simple ladder that could be easily removed if necessary.

From the terrace of the tower, one could have a good visual control of the zone, which allowed warning the people of possible dangers, and communicating news to other towers or neighbouring towns. In the case of an attack, when people were warned, they would pick up all their valuable possessions and run to hide in the forest, since there was not enough room for everyone in the tower.

Later on, when all the other outbuildings of the castle were constructed, the tower was still used to watch over and defend, but it was the last recourse in the case of an assault, less probable with the time. In that moment other functions were added to the tower, more related to the feudalism of the time.

It had functions related to repression and coercion, which were placed on the lower floors; symbolic functions related with the power (the tower is the element that stands out in the castle, and therefore it was the place with the functions related to servitude, specially the ceremonies of fidelity oaths); being the safest place of the castle, the treasure was kept there; and finally, symbolic functions related with the religion: the tower represented the medieval scheme of the society, therefore, if God and the Church are on top of everything, the chapel must be in the upper floor.

Discover one of the best castles with tower of the homage of Lleida and Catalonia.

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