page_title: Latrun
section_title: Crusader era
hierarchical_section_title: Latrun / History / Crusader era
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of the crusader castle at Latrun, Israel.
context_page_description: Latrun is located at a strategic hilltop in the Latrun salient in the Ayalon Valley. It overlooks the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla. It was the site of fierce fighting during the 1948 war. During the 1948–1967 period, it was occupied by Jordan at the edge of a no man's land between the armistice lines known as the Latrun salient. In the 1967 war, it was captured by Israel along with the whole salient and the West Bank, and remains under Israeli occupation to this day.
  The hilltop includes the Trappist Latrun Abbey, Mini Israel, a park with scale models of historic buildings around Israel, The International Center for the Study of Bird Migration, which is adjacent to Yad La-Shiryon Memorial and Museum. Neve Shalom is a joint Jewish-Arab community on a hilltop south of Latrun. Canada Park is nearby to the east.
context_section_description: Little remains of the castle, which was reputedly built in 1130s by a Castilian nobleman Rodrigo González de Lara who later gave it to the Templars. The main tower was later surrounded with a rectangular enclosure with vaulted chambers. This in turn was enclosed by an outer court, of which one tower survives.
caption: Remains of the Crusader castle at Latrun.
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