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In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, with or without towers, is known as the bailey. [4] The outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site.
After early stone remains, the next most visible features in the Irish countryside are the innumerable castle remains, tower houses and intact castles. Apart from well-known and restored castles such as Bunratty Castle , many unknown remains (particularly of tower houses) exist next to newer farmhouses, or again, simply in fields.
The 'Fortified House' drew on the earlier tradition of the tower-house and was influenced by the Tudor and emerging Jacobean architecture from England and the Classical and Military architecture coming from Continental Europe. The social, political and military changes that took place from the 1580s-1650s were to play a major role in the ...
In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence around the top of the motte replaced by a stone wall. Castle engineers during the Norman period did not trust the motte to support the enormous weight of a stone keep.
Encastellation (sometimes castellation, which can also mean crenellation) is the process whereby the feudal kingdoms of Europe became dotted with castles, from which local lords could dominate the countryside of their fiefs and their neighbours', and from which kings could command even the far-off corners of their realms.
The earliest stone castles had emerged in the 10th century, with stone keeps being built on mottes along the Catalonia frontier and several, including Château de Langeais, in Angers. [100] Although wood was a more powerful defensive material than was once thought, stone became increasingly popular for military and symbolic reasons. [ 101 ]
Soon stone became more popular. Stone castles took years to construct depending on the overall size of the castle. Stone was stronger and of course much more expensive than wood. Most stone had to be quarried miles away, and then brought to the building site. But with the invention of the cannon and gunpowder, castles soon lost their power.
The Mikhailovsky Castle is a castle that was built to protect the Russian Tsar Paul I from assassins. Completed in 1800, the castle's protective features included massive walls and water on all four sides (rivers and canals), with drawbridges that were raised at night and gun emplacements overlooking the drawbridges.