The Frankish Castle of Blanche Garde and the Medieval and Modern Village of Tell es-Safi in the Light of Recent Discoveries

Medieval castles were built to carry out a variety of defensive and administrative functions. In many cases, when they had outlived their original purpose they continued to provide protection and supervision for towns and villages that grew up outside their walls and further afield. This was frequently true in the West, where the faubourg became a common feature of the medieval landscape. Likewise, in the Frankish East, quasi-urban and rural settlements developed outside the walls of castles like Bethgibelin (Beit Govrin/Bayt Jibrin) and Château Pèlerin (ÝAtlit), to name just two examples. Frankish castles also became kernels of post-Frankish settlements. Many a village in the Near East has at its centre the ruins of a Frankish castle, and this is the case at Tell es-Safi, located 30 kilometres east of the coastal city of Ascalon in the southern coastal plain of Israel (Grid ref. 135/123; see Fig. 1).