Editing Citadel (section)

==History==
===3300–1300 BC===
Some of the oldest known structures which have served as citadels were built by the [[Indus Valley civilisation]], where citadels represented a centralised authority. Citadels in Indus Valley were almost 12 meters tall.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thapar |first=B. K. |year=1975|url=https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/kalibangan/ |title=Kalibangan: A Harappan Metropolis Beyond the Indus Valley |journal=Expedition |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=19–32}}</ref> The purpose of these structures, however, remains debated. Though the structures found in the ruins of [[Mohenjo-daro]] were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive against enemy attacks. Rather, they may have been built to divert flood waters.

Several settlements in [[Anatolia]], including the Assyrian cities of Kaneš in modern-day [[Kültepe]], featured citadels. Kaneš' citadel contained the city's palace, temples, and official buildings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Michel|first1=Cecile|publisher=Oxford|year=2016|isbn=9780199336012|title=The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BC)|editor=Sharon R. Steadman, Gregory McMahon|pages=313–320}}</ref> The citadel of the Greek city of [[Mycenae]] was built atop a highly-defensible rectangular hill and was later surrounded by walls in order to increase its defensive capabilities.<ref>{{cite book|title=Citadel to City-State: The Transformation of Greece, 1200-700 BC|last1=Thomas|first1=Carol G.|last2=Conant|first2=Craig|pages=2–10|isbn=9780253216021|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2003}}</ref>

===800 BC – 400 AD===
[[File:Bibracte Porte Rebout.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the redoubt of [[Bibracte]], a part of the Gaulish ''[[oppidum]]''. The [[Celts]] utilized these fortified cities in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.]]
In [[Ancient Greece]], the [[Acropolis]], which literally means "high city", placed on a commanding eminence, was important in the life of the people, serving as a lookout, a refuge, and a stronghold in peril, as well as containing military and food supplies, the [[shrine]] of the god and a royal [[palace]]. The most well known is the [[Acropolis of Athens]], but nearly every Greek city-state had one – the [[Acrocorinth]] is famed as a particularly strong fortress. In a much later period, when Greece was ruled by the [[Latin Empire]], the same strong points were used by the new feudal rulers for much the same purpose.

In the first millennium BC, the [[Castro culture]] emerged in northwestern Portugal and Spain in the region extending from the [[Douro]] river up to the [[Minho River|Minho]], but soon expanding north along the coast, and east following the river valleys. It was an autochthonous evolution of [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] communities. In 2008, the origins of the [[Celts]] were attributed to this period by [[John T. Koch]]<ref>{{cite journal | last = Koch | first = John | title = Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History in Acta Palaeohispanica X Palaeohispanica 9 (2009)| journal = Palaeohispánica: Revista Sobre Lenguas y Culturas de la Hispania Antigua | publisher = Palaeohispanica | year = 2009 | pages = 339–351 | url = http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf | issn = 1578-5386 | access-date = 2010-05-17 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100623034727/http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf| archive-date= 23 June 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> and supported by [[Barry Cunliffe]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cunliffe|first=Barry|title=A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75, 2009, pp. 55–64|year=2008| publisher=The Prehistoric Society|page=61}}</ref> The [[Ave River]] Valley in Portugal was the core region of this culture,<ref name="castrejoNWPort">Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva. ''A Cultura Castreja no Noroeste de Portugal''. Museu Arqueológico da Citânia de Sanfins, 1986</ref> with a large number of small settlements (the ''castros''), but also settlements known as citadels or [[oppida]] by the Roman conquerors. These had several rings of walls and the Roman conquest of the citadels of Abobriga, Lambriaca and Cinania around 138 BC was possible only by prolonged [[siege]].<ref name="galeg">{{cite book|author=Don José de Santiago y Gómez|title=Historia de Vigo y Su comarca |publisher=Imprenta y Lotografía Del Asilo De Huérfanos Del Sagrado Corázon de Jesús|year=1896}}</ref> Ruins of notable citadels still exist, and are known by archaeologists as [[Citânia de Briteiros]], [[Citânia de Sanfins]], [[Cividade de Terroso]] and [[Cividade de Bagunte]].<ref name="castrejoNWPort"/>

====167–160 BC====
Rebels who took power in a city, but with the citadel still held by the former rulers, could by no means regard their tenure of power as secure. One such incident played an important part in the history of the [[Maccabean Revolt]] against the [[Seleucid Empire]]. The [[Hellenistic]] [[garrison]] of [[Jerusalem]] and local supporters of the Seleucids held out for many years in the [[Acra (fortress)|Acra]] citadel, making Maccabean rule in the rest of Jerusalem precarious. When finally gaining possession of the place, the Maccabeans pointedly destroyed and razed the Acra, though they constructed another citadel for their own use in a different part of Jerusalem.

===400–1600===
[[File:Siége de la flotte turc.jpg|thumb|Although much of [[Nice]] was ransacked during the 1543 [[Siege of Nice|siege of the city]], [[Franco-Ottoman alliance|Franco-Ottoman]] forces besieging Nice were unable to capture its Citadel. Citadels have often been used as a last defence for a besieged army.]]
At various periods, and particularly during the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]], the citadel – having its own fortifications, independent of the city walls – was the last defence of a besieged army, often held after the town had been conquered. Locals and defending armies have often held out citadels long after the city had fallen. For example, in the 1543 [[Siege of Nice]] the Ottoman forces led by [[Hayreddin Barbarossa|Barbarossa]] conquered and pillaged the town and took many captives, but the citadel held out.

In the [[Philippines]], the [[Ivatan people]] of the northern islands of [[Batanes]] often built fortifications to protect themselves during times of war. They built their so-called ''[[idjang]]s'' on hills and elevated areas. These fortifications were likened to European castles because of their purpose. Usually, the only entrance to the castles would be via a rope ladder that would only be lowered for the villagers and could be kept away when invaders arrived.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filipiknow.net/archaeological-discoveries-in-the-philippines/|title=15 Most Intense Archaeological Discoveries in Philippine History|publisher=Filipknow|date=2018-07-03}}</ref>

===1600 to the present===
In times of war, the citadel in many cases afforded retreat to the people living in the areas around the town. However, citadels were often used also to protect a garrison or political power from the inhabitants of the town where it was located, being designed to ensure loyalty from the town that they defended. This was used, for example, during the [[Dutch Wars]] of 1664–1667, King [[Charles II of England]] constructed a Royal Citadel at [[Royal Citadel, Plymouth|Plymouth]], an important channel port which needed to be defended from a possible naval attack. However, due to Plymouth's support for the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]], in the then-recent [[English Civil War]], the Plymouth Citadel was so designed that its guns could fire on the town as well as on the sea approaches.

[[Barcelona]] had a great citadel built in 1714 to intimidate the [[Catalan people|Catalans]] against repeating their mid-17th- and early-18th-century rebellions against the Spanish central government.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vargas |first1=Michael |title=Constructing Catalan Identity |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-3-319-76744-4 |pages=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4lXDwAAQBAJ&q=citadel+in+barcelona+built+after+catalonia+attack&pg=PA89}}</ref> In the 19th century, when the political climate had liberalized enough to permit it, the people of Barcelona had the citadel torn down, and replaced it with the city's main central park, the [[Parc de la Ciutadella]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vargas |first1=Michael |title=Constructing Catalan Identity |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-3-319-76744-4 |pages=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4lXDwAAQBAJ&q=citadel+in+barcelona+built+after+catalonia+attack&pg=PA89}}</ref> A similar example is the [[Citadella]] in [[Budapest]], Hungary.

The attack on the [[Bastille]] in the [[French Revolution]] – though afterwards remembered mainly for the release of the handful of prisoners incarcerated there – was to considerable degree motivated by the structure's being a Royal citadel in the midst of revolutionary Paris.

Similarly, after [[Garibaldi]]'s overthrow of [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] rule in [[Palermo]], during the 1860 [[Unification of Italy]], Palermo's Castellamare Citadel – a symbol of the hated and oppressive former rule – was ceremoniously demolished.

Following Belgium gaining its independence in 1830, a Dutch garrison under General [[David Hendrik Chassé]] held out in [[Antwerp Citadel]] between 1830 and 1832, while the city had already become part of independent Belgium.

The [[Siege of the Alcázar]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]], in which the Nationalists held out against a much larger Republican force for two months until relieved, shows that in some cases a citadel can be effective even in modern warfare; a similar case is the [[Battle of Huế]] during the [[Vietnam War]], where a [[North Vietnamese Army]] division held the citadel of Huế for 26 days against roughly their own numbers of much better-equipped US and South Vietnamese troops.

===Modern usage===
[[File:Royal 22e Régiment - panoramio.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal 22nd Regiment]]'s home garrison is the [[Citadelle of Quebec]] in [[Canada]]. The citadel is the largest still in military operation in North America.]]
The [[Citadelle of Québec]] (the construction was started in [[1673]] and completed in 1820) still survives as the largest citadel still in official military operation in [[North America]]. It is home to the [[Royal 22nd Regiment]] of the [[Canadian Army]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lacitadelle.qc.ca/en/la-citadelle.html |title=Musée Royal 22e Régiment - La Citadelle |access-date=28 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228223051/http://www.lacitadelle.qc.ca/en/la-citadelle.html |archive-date=28 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and forms part of the [[Ramparts of Quebec City]] dating back to 1620s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=13037&pid=0 |title=Canada's Historic Places - HistoricPlaces.ca |access-date=28 February 2014}}</ref>

Since the mid 20th century, citadels have commonly enclosed military command and control centres, rather than cities or strategic points of defence on the boundaries of a country. These modern citadels are built to protect the command centre from heavy attacks, such as aerial or nuclear bombardment. The [[military citadels under London]] in the UK, including the massive underground complex Pindar beneath the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]], are examples, as is the [[Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker]] in the US.