Castle architecture

thumb|Moat at Beaumaris Castle, [[Wales]] A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer.

fortification used to protect an area from potential aggressors

thumb|right|Drawing of a bastion

thumb|upright=1.4|The Norman architecture|Norman () keep of [[Rochester Castle, England (rear). The shorter rectangular tower attached to the keep is its forebuilding, and the curtain wall is in the foreground.]] A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the castle fall to an adversary. The first keeps were made of timber and formed a key part o

thumb|Portuguese Cistern (Mazagan)|Portuguese cistern (Mazagan), [[El Jadida, Morocco (1514)]] thumb|The difference between a cistern and a well is in the source of the water: A cistern collects [[fresh water where a well draws from groundwater.]]

right|thumb|The dungeons of Blarney Castle, Ireland A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from the French , meaning 'to forget') or bottle dungeon is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch) in a high ceiling.

thumb|Buttresses of Miag-ao Church, [[Philippines]]

thumb|upright=1.35|The Battlement|crenellated parapet on a bastion of [[Kyrenia Castle, Cyprus]] A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word derives from the Italian parapetto (parare 'to cover/defend' and petto 'chest/breast'). Where extending above a roof, a parapet may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the edge line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a fire wall or party wall. Parapets were originally used to de

thumb|Animation showing the operation of a drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word drawbridge commonly refers to all types of moveable bridges, such as bascule bridges, vertical-lift bridges and swing bridges, but this article concerns the narrower historical definition where the bridge is used in a defensive structure.

thumb|Embrasure with three angles of fire, Keoti Fort, India thumb|upright|A loophole or inverted keyhole embrasure, allowing both arrow fire (through the arrowslit at the top) and small cannon fire through the circular openings, [[Fort-la-Latte, France]] thumb|Embrasure of Chinese wall thumb|Embrasures at Fortifications of Mdina|Mdina, [[Malta]] thumb|upright|Embrasure at Atalaya Castle (Spain)|Atalaya Castle, Spain

In architecture, a machicolation () is an opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement through which defenders can target attackers who have reached the base of the defensive wall. A smaller related structure that only protects key points of a fortification is referred to as a bretèche. Machicolation, hoarding, bretèches, and murder holes are all similar defensive features serving the same purpose: to enable defenders atop a defensive structure to target attackers below. The primary benefit of the design is to allow defenders to remain behind cover rather than being exposed when lean

defensive wall between two towers of a castle, fortress or town

thumb|Battlements on the Great Wall of China right|thumb|Decorative battlements in Persepolis right|thumb|Drawing of battlements on a tower

thumb|right| US Army 16-inch gun M1919 on barbette mount M1919; this was a high-angle mount with elevation to 65°. The photo was taken at Fort Duvall in 1928.

thumb|Portcullis at Desmond Castle, Adare, [[County Limerick, Ireland]] thumb|The inner portcullis of the Torre dell'Elefante in [[Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy]]

thumb|Drawing of a bartizan

thumb|Postern doubling as a sallyport in the flank of a [[bastion at Dömitz Fortress in Germany]]

architectural element, fortification feature

thumb|260px|Merlons of Alcazaba of Almería in [[Almería, Spain]] A merlon is the solid, upright section of a battlement (a crenellated parapet) in medieval architecture or fortifications. Merlons are sometimes pierced by narrow, vertical embrasures, or tooth-like slits designed for observation and fire. The space between two merlons is called a crenel, and a succession of merlons and crenels is a crenellation. Crenels designed in later eras for use by cannons were also called embrasures.

defensive structure used in fortifications

raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement

temporary wooden (shed-like) construction

length of bank or wall forming part of the defensive boundary of a fortification

thumb|Inside of an arrowslit, where an archer would stand, at Corfe Castle. thumb|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) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.

defended outer enclosure of a castle

thumb|right|The southern entrance to York, Micklegate Bar

thumb|300px|Topoľčany Castle, [[Slovakia. Three lines of defence are perfectly depicted here: Renaissance bastions, central Gothic fortification and a bergfried as the last refuge.]] Bergfried (plural: bergfriede; English: belfry; French: tour-beffroi; Italian: torrione; Castilian: torre del homenaje) is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German influence. Stephen Friar in the Sutton Companion to Castles describes a bergfried as a "free-standing, fighting-tower". Its defensive function is to some extent similar

tower built over or next to a major gateway

300px|thumb|Enceinte of Khotyn Fortress in [[Ukraine.]] thumb|300px|The keep of [[Château de Vincennes protected by its own isolated enceinte.]] thumb|300px|Krak des Chevaliers, a concentric castle. Enceinte (from Latin incinctus "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For a settlement, it would refer to the main town wall with its associated gatehouses, towers, and walls.

thumb|Gateway leading into the in Carcassonne. Right: the lower Zwinger wall. thumb|Example of a : the Minneburg in the Odenwald thumb|The around Coburg Fortress reinforced by early modern era bastions

largest room in a medieval manor

private room in the houses and palaces of early modern Europe serving as a study or retreat

hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway

pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence

thumb|View of the fortifications of Valletta, with the main fortification (a [[bastion) to the left, the ditch in the centre, and the outwork (a counterguard) to the right]]

thumb|right|The dansker at Kwidzyn Castle thumb|right|The dansker at Kwidzyn Castle A dansker (also danzker) is a toilet facility, belonging to a castle, that is housed in a tower over a river or stream. The tower, a type of garderobe tower, is linked to the castle over a bridge, which has a covered or enclosed walkway. The dansker is frequently found on German Ordensburgen and is an architectural feature of the 13th and 14th centuries.

artillery fortification design

architecture

thumb|right|The garderobe at Peveril Castle, [[Derbyshire, England]] Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy".

thumbnail|300px|12 original tenshu of various castles

building style

strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle

defensive tower detached from the curtain wall

fortified gate, leading directly from a castle or town wall directly on to a quay, riverside or harbour

small holes in buildings to hold scaffolding

room in the official residence of the crown

right|thumb|Banquette (along the wall on the right) on the Alhambra fortress in Spain.

In medieval fortification, a bretèche or brattice is a small balcony with machicolations, usually built over a gate and sometimes in the corners of the fortress' wall, with the purpose of enabling defenders to shoot or throw objects at the attackers huddled under the wall. Depending on whether they have a roof, bretèches are classified in two types: open and closed. The open ones were accessed from the battlement's wall walk, or from a crenel.

thumb|Palas of the Wartburg, courtyard side thumb|Palas of the Kaiserpfalz Goslar thumb|The Münzenberg palas at Münzenberg Castle A palas () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval Pfalz or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, are "peculiar to German castles".

defensive tower

is a Japanese term for the walls of a Japanese castle, and the regions bounded by the arrangement of those walls. The term may also be written as 郭, and the term is also used for castles built after the Edo period. The kuruwa serves as a defensive territory, provides space for additional castle facilities, and contains the living quarters for common soldiers, making it an important fixture of all Japanese castles. Most castles built during the Middle Ages contain many kuruwa of small area, while those built during or after the early modern period often contain a lesser number of kuruwa of larg

courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall

fortified tower sited on the outside of a defensive wall or other fortified structure

two-part defensive tower

secure, controlled entryway to a fortification or prison

thumb|The dirnitz at Meersburg Castle A dirnitz ( or Türnitz, from the Slavic dorniza = "heated parlour", Danish: Dørns, North Frisian: dörnsch or dörnsk) or '''Knights' Hall' was the heatable area of a medieval castle. It was usually a single large room on the ground floor of the palas below the great hall. It was often expensively furnished and had a decorative vault. Occasionally it also described the cabinet (Kemenate'') or an entire hall building. The term is German.

defensive towers built at the corners of castles or fortresse

style of medieval fortification

heavily fortified gateway of a castle or a city wall