<P> Towards the end of the Middle Ages, castles tended to lose their military significance due to the advent of powerful cannons and permanent artillery fortifications; as a result, castles became more important as residences and statements of power . A castle could act as a stronghold and prison but was also a place where a knight or lord could entertain his peers . Over time the aesthetics of the design became more important, as the castle's appearance and size began to reflect the prestige and power of its occupant . Comfortable homes were often fashioned within their fortified walls . Although castles still provided protection from low levels of violence in later periods, eventually they were succeeded by country houses as high status residences . </P> <P> Castle is sometimes used as a catch - all term for all kinds of fortifications and, as a result, has been misapplied in the technical sense . An example of this is Maiden Castle which, despite the name, is an Iron Age hill fort which had a very different origin and purpose . </P> <P> Although "castle" has not become a generic term for a manor house (like château in French and Schloss in German), many manor houses contain "castle" in their name while having few if any of the architectural characteristics, usually as their owners liked to maintain a link to the past and felt the term "castle" was a masculine expression of their power . In scholarship the castle, as defined above, is generally accepted as a coherent concept, originating in Europe and later spreading to parts of the Middle East, where they were introduced by European Crusaders . This coherent group shared a common origin, dealt with a particular mode of warfare, and exchanged influences . </P> <P> In different areas of the world, analogous structures shared features of fortification and other defining characteristics associated with the concept of a castle, though they originated in different periods and circumstances and experienced differing evolutions and influences . For example, shiro in Japan, described as castles by historian Stephen Turnbull, underwent "a completely different developmental history, were built in a completely different way and were designed to withstand attacks of a completely different nature". While European castles built from the late 12th and early 13th century onwards were generally stone, shiro were predominantly timber buildings into the 16th century . </P>

Debates about the purpose of early norman castles