I've recently learned that most 'dungeons' I've seen while visiting castles in my homeland Spain were actually water deposits decorated with fake racks. When did the obsession with imagined dungeons start and why? And did castles have real dungeons at all?

by katzenpflanzen

Note: when I say 'water deposit' I mean a man-made cistern to keep rainwater.

banedon

I asked a similar question a few years ago and a (now deleted) user posted a good response.

GinofromUkraine

How about not castles but fortresses (purely military places with garrisons)? They should have had some places to keep prisoners including their own punished soldiers etc. I've seen such underground prisons/dungeons in medieval Western Ukrainian fortresses for example complete with torture chambers and equipment.