Cultural-historical special features of Middle Age feudal castles (based on the example of monuments of chivalric culture of Central and Eastern Europe)

In the article a feudal castle is investigated as a phenomenon of European medieval culture. Its role in the public life of various regions of the central and western parts of Eastern Europe in XI - the middle XVII centuries is analyzed. Its cultural-historical value is in the focus of description with a castle being a primary guardian of a region and the key object of a knight's defense protecting the surrounding lands and the dependent population. A castle is the center of a knight's property, as well as the center of the regional political unity fulfilling a military-guardian, economic, legal, cultural, administrative and status functions in support of its owner.