Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Medieval architecture was the art and science of designing and constructing buildings in the Middle Ages. The major styles of the period included pre-Romanesque , Romanesque , and Gothic . In the fifteenth century, architects began to favour classical forms again, in the Renaissance style , marking the end of the medieval period.
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.
A chemin de ronde (French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; French pronunciation: [ʃəmɛ̃ də ʁɔ̃d]), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. [1] [2] In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficult to defend from the ground.
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.
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 ...
A well-sited castle that made use of natural defences and had strong ditches and walls had no need for a scientific design. An example of this approach is Kerak . Although there were no scientific elements to its design, it was almost impregnable, and in 1187 Saladin chose to lay siege to the castle and starve out its garrison rather than risk ...
The design was brought to Europe from the Levant following the crusades and became especially prevalent in Southern Europe. Machicolations were more common in French castles than English, where they are usually restricted to the gateway, as in the 13th-century Conwy Castle. [4] Within France, machicolation is more common on southern castles.
A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, [1] most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the flanks being able to protect the curtain wall and the adjacent bastions. [2]