medieval architecture for castle defense

The interior of a reconstructed hoarding around Caerphilly Castle, Wales. Another reconstructed hoarding can be seen in Caerphilly Castle, also in South Wales, which extends along the northern curtain wall of the inner bailey. The Château Comtal of Carcassonne and the keep of Rouen Castle, both in France, have reconstructed wooden hoardings, and also Castell Coch in South Wales, which was wholly rebuilt in 1875 and which has a hoarding over the drawbridge designed by the Victorian architect William Burges.

Some medieval hoardings have survived, including examples on the north tower of Stokesay Castle, England, and the keep of Laval, France. However, some hoardings were supported on permanent stone corbels. Construction of hoardings was often facilitated by putlog holes, sockets that were left in the masonry of castle walls for wooden joists called 'putlogs'. It is suspected that hoardings were stored as prefabricated elements in peacetime. Machicolations are also permanent and always ready for a siege. The latter function was the purpose of the invention of machicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry is fire proof.

Reconstructed wooden hoarding around the Cité de Carcassonne, FranceĪ hoard or hoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of a castle during a siege that enabled the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall. Ultimately, it was the development of artillery including mortars and cannons that brought an end to the reign of the castle, rendering them no longer financially viable due to the ease of their destruction.For other uses, see Hoarding (disambiguation). However, coastal castles could be supplied from the sea making this strategy impossible. Overall, castle defences made it extremely difficult for them to be taken and quite often the only way in was to play a longer game, typically involving surrounding a castle and starving those inside. Typically, this part of the castle would include a drawbridge, a portcullis, arrow slits, murder holes (machicolations) and ant other device that would give the defenders an advantage. The entrance was one of the most important lines of defence, and was always heavily fortified. Inside the castle itself many different features were developed to help ensure it wasn’t taken. The name keep derives from the Middle English kype, meaning basket or cask. It was usually a fortified tower built within the walls and used as a last refuge in case of an attack. However, weaker moats were vulnerable to those determined to cross, even with the castles defenders attacking from above. A castle’s Keep is the strongest portion of a medieval fortification and the last resort in case of a siege or attack. Concentric castles were considered the safest form of medieval castles. Sometimes, paying each defender became tough for the castle owners. Also, the elaborated defensive system required more defenders. However, this was not as easy to achieve with the more stable round towers.Ī moat was another common defence, which would prevent easy access to the castle and allow the defenders the opportunity to attack while they attempted to cross. The concentric castle attacking strategy put a huge burden on royal treasuries. Previously, enemies had been able to dig tunnels underneath the towers and use various methods to force them to collapse (known as sapping). One engineering development that significantly increased the strength and stability of castles was the introduction of round towers, which were more secure than the square towers that came before them.

Medieval architecture for castle defense