Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 drawbar is a defensive implement used to secure a door or gate in a medieval or Early Modern building such as a castle, [1] [2] but also churches and townhouses. When drawn across the full length of the door, it prevents the door or gate from being opened. To open the door or gate, the drawbar is pushed into a drawbar slot in the wall.
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 ...
Beaumaris Castle in Wales was built in the late 13th century and is an example of concentric castles which developed in the late medieval period. Badajoz Castle of Topoľčany in Slovakia Medieval fortification refers to medieval military methods that cover the development of fortification construction and use in Europe , roughly from the fall ...
South gate of Friedestrom Castle with its wicket (pedestrian entrance) Gate and wicket (manway) of Alsfeld's New Town Hall. Wickets are typically small, narrow doors either alongside or within a larger castle or city gate. The latter were often double gates, large and heavy, designed to allow the passage of wagons, coaches and horsemen.
Yett hanging in the main entrance of Blackness Castle, Scotland, showing attached bolts and pierced construction.Wrought in 1693. [1]A yett (from the Old English and Scots language word for "gate") [2] is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses. [3]
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.
In the more recent castle science literature the rope lift is rarely seen as a method of reaching an elevated entrance. [3] In the 19th century, August Essenwein saw the rope lift as a common entry system. For example, in his numerous artist's impressions of medieval castles, people can often be seen being hauled up towers using a simple lift.