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The 12th-century curtain wall of the Château de Fougères in Brittany in northern France, showing the battlements, arrowslits and overhanging machicolations. In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, with or without towers, is known as the bailey. [4]
A moat was a common addition to medieval fortifications, and the principal purpose was to simply increase the effective height of the walls and to prevent digging under the walls. In many instances, natural water paths were used as moats, and often extended through ditches to surround as much of the fortification as possible.
Several medieval town walls have survived into the modern age, such as the walled towns of Austria, walls of Tallinn, or the town walls of York and Canterbury in England, as well as Nordlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. In Spain, Avila and Tossa del Mar hosts surviving medieval walls while Lugo has an intact Roman wall.
A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals to allow for the launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the defences. [1]
A bailey or ward in a fortification is a leveled courtyard, typically enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, a medieval type of European castle is known as a motte-and-bailey. Castles and fortifications may have more than one bailey, and the enclosure wall building material may have been at first in wood, and later transitioned to stone ...
Elements of a rampart in a stone castle or town wall from the 11th to 15th centuries included: Parapet: a low wall on top of the rampart to shelter the defenders. Crenellation: rectangular gaps or indentations at intervals in the parapet, the gaps being called embrasures or crenels, and the intervening high parts being called merlons.
The castle in front of Porta Serio was built according to late medieval principles in 1335, [20] was later enlarged and became the seat of the castellan and garrison; [20] in Filippo Verneda's Relatione of 1683, it is described as a structure with walls of perfect quality, with angular towers both square and round, with an outer pit “of 9 ...
A diagram of a Motte and Bailey Castle. Surviving examples of medieval secular architecture mainly served for defense, these include forts, castles, tower houses, and fortified walls. Fortifications were built during the Middle Ages to display the power of the lords of the land and reassure common folk in their protection of property and ...