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The outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site. In medieval designs of castle and town, the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult.
Inside of an arrowslit, where an archer would stand, at Corfe Castle. Exterior view of arrowslits in the Bargate gatehouse in Southampton. An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria [1]) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.
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.
Carmona's historic center, enveloped by medieval walls, is a a smorgasbord of Roman ruins (the Necropolis is a must-see) and Umayyad signatures (Alcázar de la Puerta de Sevilla). Shop Now ...
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.
A medieval moat castle in Steinfurt, Germany. Moats were excavated around castles and other fortifications as part of the defensive system as an obstacle immediately outside the walls. In suitable locations, they might be filled with water.
Plan of the outer and inner baileys of Alt-Trauchburg Castle (Germany). The Graben is the neck ditch, and to its right is the inner bailey, accessible over a wooden bridge. Topoľčany Castle with an inner and an outer bailey. The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle. [1]
Although castle has not become a generic term for a manor house (like château in French and Schloss in German), many manor houses contain castle in their name while having few if any of the architectural characteristics, usually as their owners liked to maintain a link to the past and felt the term castle was a masculine expression of their ...