Castles Are Not Military Fortifications

Castles are primarily enormous buildings to impress the power, prestige and lordship of medieval aristocrats. A lot of this castle architecture is symbolic; we should stop thinking about castles as primarily fortifications. This is 30 years of research that's gone into this from many, many different corners of the world. And as a result, we need to rethink what spiral staircases are all about. Are they military and are they aspects of fortification? The conclusion is a resounding no that they're not.