Almost everything the movies taught you about castles is either backwards or freshly painted over. Fourteen questions — commit before each reveal, keep score, and mind the murder holes.

Did castle defenders really pour boiling oil on attackers?

Rarely, if ever — oil was far too expensive to dump off a wall. The documented favorites were rocks, boiling water, and heated sand that worked its way inside armor.

What color were many medieval castles, really?

White — walls were often plastered and whitewashed. The Tower of London's White Tower got its name after Henry III had it whitewashed in 1240.

What was a garderobe?

The castle toilet — a chute through the wall. The name means 'guard the robes': clothes were stored nearby, where the ammonia fumes supposedly kept moths away.

Were moats actually full of water?

Often not — many were dry ditches. The wet ones doubled as the landing zone for the garderobes, which was a defense all its own.

What were murder holes?

Openings in the ceiling above a gate passage — for dropping stones and boiling water on anyone who forced the door.

What is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world?

Windsor Castle — founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th century and home to English royals ever since.

What is the largest castle on Earth by land area?

Malbork Castle in Poland — a vast brick fortress built by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century.

How medieval is Neuschwanstein, the fairy-tale castle that inspired Disney's?

Not at all — King Ludwig II began it in 1869, complete with central heating and running water. He slept there only about 172 days; it opened to paying tourists within weeks of his death in 1886.

Which country is often said to have more castles per square mile than anywhere else?

Wales — roughly 600 castles packed into one small, heavily contested country.

Do clockwise spiral staircases prove castles were designed to cramp right-handed attackers?

It's a beloved theory with shaky evidence — plenty of castles have counterclockwise stairs, and no medieval builder left a note. File under 'too tidy to trust.'

What did the besiegers of Caffa catapult over the walls in 1346?

Plague corpses, by a contemporary chronicler's account — often cited as one of history's first acts of biological warfare.

Did Vlad the Impaler actually live in 'Dracula's Castle' at Bran?

There's little evidence he ever did — and Bram Stoker never set foot in Romania. The connection is mostly modern marketing.

What has Japan's Himeji Castle survived?

World War II bombing raids and the 1995 Kobe earthquake, among much else — its white 400-year-old keep still stands intact.

Why are arrow slits shaped the way they are?

Narrow outside, splayed wide inside — the archer within got a broad field of fire while offering attackers a target a few inches wide.

Keep the whitewash fact for your next castle visit: every brooding gray ruin you've ever photographed spent its working life gleaming white. The Middle Ages just had better paint than PR.