Kalmar Castle - Exterior. The Sieges; Gloom and Whimsy

Any castle is there for a purpose:  show-off status, a palatial residence; or defense; or both.  Needs change, and so does the architecture, remodeling.  The Home Show.

Defense.  Imagination need not go far to put ships on horizon, adrenalin going.  The wheels were not just for cannon mobility but also to absorb the kick-back from the explosion.  Many are on tracks with backstops for that reason.

Kalmar is a Renaissance Castle, built in the 12th Century, just after the kinds of defenses needed in medieval times were becoming obsolete.  See ://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A805862. 

Cannon, Kalmar Castle, Sweden

,Whimsy, Kalmar Castle, Sweden.  Watch for carved folk figures. 

Note that she is taller than he is. 

Kalmar Castle, original construction model, large Keep. no cutrain walls

Kalmar Castle, Sweden, towers and curtain walls

These improvements were made for an age of cannon, gunpowder.  Not attacks by catapults, arrows. Defenses against arrows required narrow windows, with angled jambs enabling a wide swath for aim, to sides, up and down.

Sweden, Castle Kalmar, later remodeling of Keep, windows not for siege, but for looking,

Kalmar Castle, defensive moat idea now pit and tunnel, below-ground walkways, barracks in round structure in background. ,,,

Its main catastrophe was the Siege of Kalmar in 1611, attack by the Danes. In the 18th Century, it became a storage place for arms, and a prison, among other uses. In 1776, enter the Royal Distillery.