Join TV's Dan Snow as the fully illustrated 'Battle Castles' brings to thrilling life a cavalcade of medieval fortifications and the clashes that turned empires to dust and mortals into legends.

Castles and their ruins still dominate the landscape and are a constant reminder to us of a time when violence, or the threat of it, was the norm.

Dan Snow explores the world's greatest medieval castles: from Dover Castle to Chateau Gaillard, Richard I's fortress in Normandy, and Castillo de Gibalfaro, the last vanguard of Moorish rule in Spain, to Krak des Chevaliers in Syria - an astounding feat of engineering by the Crusaders.

Each castle's story is dramatically recounted: the building techniques, the weapons used and daily life within the walls. Spanning the globe, and using the latest CGI reconstructions, Dan Snow gets to the very heart of the bloodshed and battles of the greatest fortresses of the Middle Ages.