Winterfell

Biodata

Layout and Landmarks

• Main keep — Contains the Stark family's rooms. Winterfell was built over a hot spring, whose heat travels through pipes in the castle walls to warm its rooms 2.
• Banquet hall — A gray-stone hall hung with Stark direwolf banners. Its eight lower tables can accommodate several hundred guests, while the family and noble guests dine on a raised platform 2.
• Training grounds — Used to drill Robb's personal guard and assemble Winterfell's officers 8 22.
• Godswood and kennels — The spacious kennels stand south of the Godswood, near the training grounds. They later house Nymeria, Lady, and their pups 137 143.
• Crypts — Hold the remains of the Kings of the North and heads of House Stark 47.
• Winterfell Market — A settlement outside the castle. Its Hearthfire Inn draws commoners, merchants, and mercenaries; the market later expands substantially to house civilians brought from the Westerlands 12 137.
• Military camp — Built a few kilometers outside Winterfell with a wooden palisade, north and south entrances, stands, a parade platform, and rows of tents 46.

History

Robb Stark's rule

Eddard Stark publicly names Robb his heir at the Wolfs Den Ceremony and forms a personal guard for him. After recovering from illness, Robb, as acting lord, places Winterfell on war readiness and takes command of its troops 8 22.

Following the campaign against House Bolton, Northern nobles gather at Winterfell to hear of Robb's capture of the Dreadfort and attend a military parade at the new camp. The camp's Warrior's Tomb is established to inscribe the names of soldiers who died fighting for Winterfell, alongside promised support for their dependents 44 46 47.

Robb is later crowned King of the North at a banquet in Winterfell. He subsequently leads a Northern army south from the castle and its military camp 91 94. During his absence, arrivals from the Westerlands drive the market's expansion to more than twice its former extent 137.

Destruction and proposed rebuilding

Daenerys Targaryen's army besieges Winterfell after entering the North. Its defenders lose the newly built outer city—the former Winterfell Market—during the second assault. Daenerys then attacks with Drogon, whose dragonfire burns the castle 259 260.

Robb later orders the buried crypt entrance excavated. He intends to move the Stark family's remains to King's Landing and to rebuild Winterfell after the fighting ends, but has not yet decided who will garrison the North 280. In the finale, he names Jon Stark Duke of Winterfell and encourages him to rebuild the North 296.