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Portcullis at Desmond Castle, Adare, County Limerick, Ireland The inner portcullis of the Torre dell'Elefante in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy A portcullis (from Old French porte coleice 'sliding gate') is a heavy, vertically closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications. [1]
A very large gatehouse might be called a châtelet (small castle). At the end of the Middle Ages, many gatehouses in England and France were converted into beautiful, grand entrance structures to manor houses or estates. Many of them became a separate feature free-standing or attached to the manor or mansion only by an enclosing wall.
The Severin Gate in Cologne. In German, a "Torburg", lit. "gate castle", is a relatively autonomous and heavily fortified gateway of a castle or town.Medieval castle gateways of this type usually have additional fortifications in front of them.
Errard, who also designed the citadels of Amiens and Doullens, was the creator of the half moon of the Hermitage at the gate of the citadel which is now known as Neptune's Gate. The castle consisted of four towers. A medieval part of the city wall which connected the Carrée Tower and the Pavée Tower still exists today.
As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point. In crusader castles, there is often a gate tower, with the gate passage leading through the base of the tower itself. In European castles, it is more common to have flanking towers on either side of the gatehouse.
Students from Ghent University occupied the castle on 16 November 1949 in protest against a new tax against beer. The occupation, referred to popularly as the "Battle of Gravensteen Castle" (Slag om het Gravensteen), involved 138 students who seized the castle buildings, lowered the portcullis, and barricaded the castle gate. A guard on duty at ...
A watergate (or water gate) is a fortified gate, leading directly from a castle or town wall directly on to a quay, river side or harbour. In medieval times it enabled people and supplies to reach the castle or fortification directly from the water, and equally allowed those within the castle direct access to water transport. [1]
A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing defenders to make a sortie on the besiegers. Placed in a less ...