Anurban castle (German:Stadtburg) is acastle that is located within amedieval town or city or is integrated into itsfortifications.

In most cases, the town or city grew up around or alongside the castle (for example inHalle,Brunswick andPrague), or the castle was built in order to reinforce the defences within or as part of the line of fortification ringing the settlement as, for example, atErfurt.

Creighton draws a distinction between the 'urban castle', where the castle is built in or onto an existing town, and the 'castle borough', "where a primary castle attracts a secondary borough or the two are planned together,"^[1] although he acknowledges that the division between the two is not always clear-cut.

The urban castle was also used as an instrument of power, for example byWilliam the Conqueror inNorman England,^[2] or byterritorial lords in theHoly Roman Empire when towns in the lateMiddle Ages were increasingly striving for their independence. In such cases the urban castle was integrated into a strategically favourable point in thecity wall so that the lord could enter the castle from the fields outside unhindered by the citizens and, through anothergateway in the castle walls facing the city, could leave the castle and enter the city.^{[citation needed]}

• Krems inLower Austria, has theGozzoburg, ahigh mediaeval urban castle.

• Prague Castle inPrague

There are examples of urban castles in:

• Andernach inRhineland-Palatinate where theElectoral CologneStadtburg (designed as awater castle) as an instrument of power
• Erfurt with itsPetersberg Citadel, which is integrated into the defensive system of the oldfortified city
• Esslingen am Neckar: the originaloutposts on the Schönenberg were gradually incorporated into the town fortifications through the construction of branching walls (Schenkelmauern). Due to the geological situation there, the cost was very high.
• Feuchtwangen in Bavaria still has, in the remains of its town walls, a picturesque link to the site of Little Ottingen Castle (Öttingischen Schlösschen), a former water castle, which juts out from the otherwise circular town wall. Later a smallhunting lodge was built on the site
• Friedberg inHesse has animperial castle
• Horn-Bad Meinberg inNorth Rhine-Westphalia hasHorn Castle, a castle built into the town's defences
• Nuremberg: thedouble castle is incorporated into thecity wall
• Schlitz in Hesse, one of the best-known examples of urban castles in Germany with four castles.
• Warburg hasWartberch Castle.
• Weißenstein with the old castle ofSchloss Weißenstein

• Emperor Fasilides' Castle (part of theFasil Ghebbi complex) inGondar

• Turku Castle inFinland

• Buda Castle inBudapest
• Sárospatak Castle inSárospatak

• Wawel Castle inKraków (part of theWawel fortified complex of the Kraków Old Town)

• Brașov Old Town Fortress,Brașov

• Bratislava Castle inBratislava (fortified site history preceding adjacent city)
• Trenčín Castle inTrenčín
• Nitra Castle inNitra (parallel evolution of the castle and the city since the early Middle Ages)
• Old Castle (Starý zámok) inBanská Štiavnica (secondary Old Town development, late Middle Ages)
• New Castle (Nový zámok) inBanská Štiavnica (secondary Old Town development, Renaissance)
• Kremnica Castle inKremnica (secondary Old Town development, late Middle Ages)
• Podolínec Castle inPodolínec
• Kežmarok Castle inKežmarok

• Uzhhorod Castle inUzhhorod

TheTower of London has been called "the most complete of urban castles",^[3] and an "archetypally oppressive castle."^[4] Other examples include:

• Baile Hill, York
• Banbury Castle
• Baynard's Castle
• Bristol Castle
• Castle Acre
• Caernarvon Castle
• Conway Castle
• Flint Castle
• Mountfichet Castle
• Oxford Castle
• Rhuddlan Castle

• 
  London, United Kingdom
• 
  Caernarfon, United Kingdom
• 
  Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• 
  Nuremberg, Germany
• 
  Schlitz, Germany
• 
  Friedberg, Germany
• 
  Balzers, Liechtenstein
• 
  Krems an der Donau, Austria
• 
  Prague, Czech Republic
• 
  Kraków, Poland
• 
  Budapest, Hungary
• 
  Sárospatak, Hungary
• 
  Kremnica, Slovakia
• 
  Starý zámok,Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
• 
  Nový zámok, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
• 
  Uzhorod, Ukraine
• 
  Brașov, Romania
• 
  Turku, Finland
• 
  Gondar, Ethiopia

• Creighton, O.H.Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England. London: Equinox, 2002.ISBN 1-904768-67-9.
• Pounds, N.J.G.The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A social and political history. Cambridge: CUP, 1994.ISBN 1-903153-61-1.
• Wheatley, Abigail. "The Urban Castle" inThe Idea of the Castle in Medieval England, York: York Medieval Press, 2004. pp. 44–77.ISBN 978-1-903153-14-7.

• City walls
• Castles by type

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• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019