Montfort (castle)

Montfort Castle
מבצר מונפור
Part of Nahal Kziv Nature Reserve
Israel
Montfort castle at sunrise
Montfort Castle Location within Israel
Coordinates	33°2′41.05″N 35°13′33.32″E / 33.0447361°N 35.2259222°E / 33.0447361; 35.2259222Coordinates: 33°2′41.05″N 35°13′33.32″E / 33.0447361°N 35.2259222°E / 33.0447361; 35.2259222
Type	Spur castle
Site information
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruins
Site history
Built	Mid-12th century
In use	Mid-12th century – 1271

Montfort (Hebrew: מבצר מונפור‎‎, Mivtzar Monfor) is a ruined crusader castle in the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of the city of Haifa and 10 miles (16 km) south of the border with Lebanon.

The site is now a national park inside the Nahal Kziv nature reserve, and is an important tourist destination attracting many visitors from inside and outside Israel.

The name of the fortress derives from the two French words mont (a mountain) and fort (strong), meaning the "strong mountain". It was built on land that the Teutonic Order purchased from the French De Milly family in the 1220s and is one of the finest examples of fortified building architecture in Outremer. The fortress was accordingly called Starkenberg, meaning the same phrase in German (stark meaning strong, and berg meaning mountain).

Montfort was the principal castle of the military Teutonic Order, which was founded in the late 12th century in the port city of Acre. The fortress is built on a narrow and steep cliff above the southern bank of Nahal Kziv in the Upper Galilee region, about 8 mi (13 km) northeast of the city of Nahariya. Unlike many other crusader fortresses in the Holy Land, this fortress was not originally built for military purposes, but was built to move some of the order's administration, such as the archives and treasury, from Acre to a more isolated location. The Teutonic Order had at the time come under pressure from the Templars and the Hospitallers in Acre, who had designs of taking it over.

Soon after the Crusaders conquered the Holy Land from the Muslims in 1099 during the First Crusade, European settlers (apart from the Crusaders themselves) began to populate the land. The noble French De Milly family received the estate and began to cultivate the land, turning it into a farming estate. In 1187 Muslims under the leadership of Saladin managed to defeat the Crusaders and take over Jerusalem following the Battle of Hattin. Along with Jerusalem, the property which was to be the Montfort castle became a Muslim possession as well. The Muslims, just like their Crusader predecessors, did not find the property particularly significant. The farmland lacked strategic importance because it was situated inland, above a stream channel, far away from any borders or main means of transportation.