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Similarly, in Swedish, a related Germanic language, the word slott is normally used for what in English could be either a palace or a castle (instead of words in rarer use such as palats or kastell or borg).
Most Schlösser were built after the Middle Ages as residences for the nobility and not as true fortresses, although they were often originally fortified; the usual German term for a true castle is Burg and for a fortress is Festung; however, many castles were called "Schloss", especially those that were used as residences after they lost their defensive significance and many were adapted to new tastes during the Renaissance and Baroque period.
Like a castle, a Schloss is often surrounded by a moat and is then called a Wasserschloss (water castle). Other types include the Stadtschloss (city palace), the Jagdschloss (hunting lodge) and the Lustschloss (pleasure palace or summer residence).
|Look up Schloss in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
In another context Schloss is also the German word for a lock.