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Montfort
The ruins of the once splendid Montfort Crusader castle, are located on
a precipitous rock crest, overlooking the Keziv river
are surrounded by an immense natural forest on the river slopes. The castle
was constructed by Templar Crusader knights in the early 12th century, probably
initially as a fortified farm, because in contrast to other Crusaders fortresses,
it does not control a road, or any other strategic point.
Short after completion the building was destroyed by Salah al Din after
the defeat of the Crusaders at the Horns of Hittim on 3-4 July 1187.
Five years later, the castle was re-conquered by the Crusaders, who restored
it. In 1220, Montfort was sold to the Crusader Knights of the German Teutonic
Order - the German order split from the Hospitaller order - and became their
seat. They enlarged the castle with the help of donations collected by the
head of the Teutonic order, Hermann von Salza , and gave it the name "Starkenberg"
which means strong mountain. In a contract signed in Jaffa on 18th of February
1229 by the German King Friedrich II and the Moslem Sultan Almalik Alkamil,
Montfort is mentioned as a Christian castle, with for first time the French
name "Montfort", as used today.
The fortress became a part of the defensive system protecting the Crusaders
"Kingdom of Acre".
For years, the Moslems tried in vain to re-conquer it. 
In the summer of 1266, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars made a first attempt to
capture the castle but withdrew, only five years later, in 1271, after a
seven days siege and digging under the walls he succeeded breaching the
outer western wall and assaulted the inner defences, thus he conquered the
last Crusader stronghold in Galilee. The Crusaders were permitted to surrender
and withdraw with their treasures and archives to Acre; copies of those
archives reached the Tirol in Austria, and are an important source for the
history of the Land of Israel in time of the Crusaders.
The Mamluk army devastated the castle and its walls, to prevent re-occupation
by the Crusaders, and left the ruins we see today, although a few constructions
date from the time of Dhahir el-'Amar, the Bedouin Governor of the Galilee
in the 18th century.
The castle's Arabic name is "Qal'at Qurein" meaning "castle on the small
horn" so called for the the small and precipitous cliff which this castle
crowns. The river Keziv River below is called "Wadi Qurein" in Arabic.
The remnants and finds
In 1926, an American archeological mission excavated the castle. Crusader
armour was found, together with a part of a bow, many spearheads, a helmet,
and parts of a cuirass.
Downhill remains of another Crusaders building were found from that period,
probably the farmer's house, and remainders of a dam in the river was discovered
which stored water for channaling to a flour mill. From the castle can be
seen the best preserved section of the outer defense wall two meters thick
on the north and west side of it; loopholes in the wall; three cisterns
hewn in the rock; rain water from the roofs and squares was collected through
backed clay pipes into the cisterns; an observation tower; a staircase;
living and work rooms and cellars; a row of some immense Gothic columns,
which supported the roof of the main hall, a well preserved wine press.
There are also some remains of a church, on the east flank of the castle;
where the cliff is connected to the mountain range there is a moat cut in
the rock, 20 meters wide and 11 meters deep; about 50 meters further east,
a deep depression was broadened to form a frontal moat.
Because also coins and pot sherds from the Second Temple period were found,
some archaeologists maintain, that the Crusader builders used building materials
from a former Roman fortress and other Roman ruins in the area.
Text and pictures by: Pinhas Baraq.
Based on the following Literature:
Meir Ben Dov, article Fortress Montfort in Israel Guide, Jerusalem
1978 (Hebrew).
Dave Winter, Israel Handbook, Fotoprint, Bath England n.d.
Zeev Vilnay, Israel Guide to Israel, Jerusalem 1978.
Jehoshua Prauer, The History of Eretz Israel under Moslem and Crusaders
Rule, Jerusalem 1981 (Hebrew).
Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London 1970. |
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