in
Tuscany, Italy. After their initial appearance in Ireland, Scotland, the
Frisian lands, Northern
Spain and
England during the
High Middle Ages, tower houses were also built in other parts of western Europe, especially in parts of France and Italy. In Italian
medieval communes, urban
palazzi with a very tall tower were increasingly built by the local highly competitive
patrician families as power centres during times of internal strife. Most north Italian cities had a number of these by the end of the Middle Ages, but few now remain, notably
two towers in
Bologna,
twenty towers in
Pavia and fourteen secular towers in the small city of
San Gimignano in
Tuscany now the best group to survive. Scotland has many fine examples of medieval tower houses, including
Drum Castle,
Craigievar Castle and
Castle Fraser, and in the unstable
Scottish Marches along the border between England and Scotland the
peel tower was the typical residence of the wealthy, with others being built by the government. In 17th century Scotland these castles became the pleasure retreats of the upper classes. While able to adopt a military nature, they were furnished for comfort and social interaction. Tower houses are commonly found in northern Spain, especially in
Navarre and the
Basque Country, some of them dating to the 8th century. They were mainly used as noble residences and were able to provide shelter against enemies, starting with the Muslims and later
Aragón and
Castile. Due to complex legal charters, few had boroughs attached to them, thus they are usually found standing alone in some strategic spot like a crossroad, rather than on a height. During
the petty wars among the Basque nobles from 1379 to 1456, the upper floors (with defensive capacity) of most of them were demolished. Few have survived unscathed to the present day. Since then they have been used only as residences by their traditional noble owners (
Saint Ignatius of Loyola was born in one of them, which stands to this day) or converted into farmhouses. '' and tower, San Miguel das Penas,
Galicia, Spain. To the west of the Basque Country, in
Cantabria and
Asturias, similar tower houses are found. Furthest west in
Spain, in
Galicia, medieval tower houses are in the origin of many
Modern Age pazos, noble residences as well as strongholds. Large numbers of tower houses can be found across Portugal, particularly in the north of the country. By the 15th century they had lost their military or residential uses, and were often either expanded into larger manors or converted into hunting lodges for the aristocracy. A feature peculiar to
Germany is the few preserved tower houses of
Ratisbon, reminiscent of those in San Gimignano. in
Vratsa,
Bulgaria Distinctive
tower houses were built in the Balkans since the
Middle Ages. They became very widespread in the 17th century, built by both
Christians and Muslims in a period of decline of
Ottoman authority and insecurity. The tower house served the purpose of protecting the extended family. tower house, Estonia In the
Baltic states, the
Teutonic Order and other
crusaders erected fortified tower houses in the Middle Ages, locally known as "vassal castles", as a means of exercising control over the conquered areas. These tower houses were typically not intended to be used in any major military actions. For this purpose, the crusaders relied on a number of larger
order castles. A number of such tower houses still exist, well-preserved examples include
Purtse,
Vao and
Kiiu castles in
Estonia. ==Caucasus and Asia==