What are the teeth called on a castle?

What are the teeth called on a castle? Crenellations are one of the most recognizable elements of a medieval castle. These upright projections resemble teeth, bared at invaders to prevent their attempted entries and at allies to show the owner's strength. Each upright section is called a merlon or crenel, and they protected defenders from attacks.

What is a balcony on a castle called?

In medieval fortification, a bret?che 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.

What is the living room of a castle called?

In the Middle Ages the great chamber was an all-purpose reception and living room. The family might take some meals in it, though the great hall was the main eating room.

What is a gatehouse in a castle?

A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance.

What is the front door of a castle called?

A portcullis is a heavy castle door or gate made of metal strips that form a grid. A castle guardian might lower the portcullis to protect the people inside from an invading army. It was common during medieval times for castles to be protected by a portcullis or two.

What are the cones on castles called?

Turrets in medieval castles and walls were built of stone and supported by stone corbels. Corbels are architectural projections which jut out from walls and provide support to the structure above them. Medieval turret corbels were often cone-shaped and could have a crenelated top or a pointed roof.

What is the courtyard in a castle called?

Bailey or Ward: courtyard within the walls of the castle.

What is a moat in a castle?

moat, a depression surrounding a castle, city wall, or other fortification, usually but not always filled with water. The existence of a moat was a natural result of early methods of fortification by earthworks, for the ditch produced by the removal of earth to form a rampart made a valuable part of the defense system.

What are the different parts of a castle called?

What is a bailey in a castle?

A bailey is the sturdy wall around a castle that keeps invaders out. The bailey of a medieval castle was usually built of stone. You might see a bailey — or the remains of one — if you tour a castle in England or France.

What is the most attacked castle?

Over the centuries around 23 different siege attempts were made on Edinburgh Castle – making it the most besieged place in Europe.

What is a turret in a castle?

In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification.

What are the cutouts on castles called?

Battlements were defensive parapets along the tops of castles. Battlements consisted of alternating raised spaces called merlons and the lower spaces called crenels. Battlements were created from stone and were originally designed to help protect the castle from invading forces.

What are the three types of castles?

The three main types of castles are the motte and bailey castle, the stone keep castle, and the concentric castle.

What is the safest part of a castle?

What other rooms were there in a Medieval castle? At the time of Chr tien de Troyes, the rooms where the lord of a castle, his family and his knights lived and ate and slept were in the Keep (called the Donjon), the rectangular tower inside the walls of a castle. This was meant to be the strongest and safest place.

What are the holes in castle walls called?

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.

What is a rampart in a castle?

In fortification architecture, a bank or rampart is a length of embankment or wall forming part of the defensive boundary of a castle, hillfort, settlement or other fortified site. It is usually broad-topped and made of excavated earth and/or masonry.