Bergfried

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 to that of a keep (also known as a donjon) in English or French castles. However, the characteristic difference between a bergfried and a keep is that a bergfried was typically not designed for permanent habitation.

== Overview == thumb|200px|Cross section of a typical bergfried, from Piper's classic text The living quarters of a castle with a bergfried are separate, often in a lower tower or an adjacent building called a palas (an English-style keep combines both functions of habitation and defence.) Consequently, a bergfried could be built as a tall slender tower with little internal room, few vaults and few if any windows. The bergfried served as a watchtower and as a refuge during sieges (at least if the siege was relatively brief). The distinction between a bergfried and a keep is not always clear-cut, as there were thousands of such towers built with many variations. There are some French keeps with only austere living quarters, while some late bergfrieds in Germany were intended to be habitable (Piper 1900).