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A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
s, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and fulfil different functions.


Shape of towers


Rectangular towers

Square or rectangular towers are easy to construct and give a good amount of usable internal space. Their disadvantage is that the corners are vulnerable to mining. Despite this vulnerability, rectangular towers continued to be used, and Muslim military architecture generally favoured them.Kennedy (2000).


Round towers

Round towers, also called drum towers, are more resistant to siege technology such as sappers and
projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in ...
s than square towers. The round front is more resistant than the straight side of a square tower, just as a load-bearing
arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vault ...
. This principle was already understood in antiquity.


Horseshoe-shaped towers

The
horseshoe-shaped Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...
(or D-shaped) tower is a compromise that gives the best of a round and a square tower. The semicircular side (the one facing the attacker) could resist siege engines, while the rectangular part at the back gives internal space and a large fighting platform on top. The large towers at Krak des Chevaliers and the
gate tower A gate tower (german: Torturm) is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on ...
s at Harlech are good examples. Armenian castles such as
Lampron Lampron (; ; ) is a castle near the town of Çamlıyayla in Mersin Province, Turkey. While part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the Middle Ages, the castle was known as Lampron and was the ancestral home of the Armenian Hethumid princes. Sit ...
also favoured this style.


Polygonal towers

A common form is an octagonal tower, used in some bergfrieds and at Castel del Monte in Italy. There are also hybrid shapes. For instance, the keep at
Château Gaillard Château Gaillard () is a medieval castle ruin overlooking the River Seine above the commune of Les Andelys, in the French department of Eure, in Normandy. It is located some north-west of Paris and from Rouen. Construction began in 1196 un ...
is slightly bent forward, but also has a triangular beak to deflect projectiles.


Towers with specific functions

Wall towers, also known as mural towers, provide flanking fire (from
crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fire ...
s or other projectile weapons) to a straight part of the curtain wall. Corner towers
enfilade Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in de ...
the two adjoining wall faces. If corner towers are far apart, additional flanking towers may be added between them. Towers in an outer curtain wall are often open at the back. Particularly large towers are often the strongest point of the castle: the keep or the bergfried. As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point. In crusader castles, there is often a
gate tower A gate tower (german: Torturm) is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on ...
, with the gate passage leading through the base of the tower itself. In European castles, it is more common to have flanking towers on either side of the gatehouse. Image:Tower of Hrelyu.jpg,
Hrelja Hrelja also known as Protosebastos Hrelija ( sr, Хреља; bg, Хрельо, ''Hrelyo''), also known as Stefan Dragovol (Стефан Драговол) or Hrelja Ohmućević ( sr, Хреља Охмућевић) was a 14th-century semi-independe ...
's fortified tower in the Rila Monastery,
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...
. Image:Krak des Chevaliers 13.jpg, A rectangular and a round tower projecting from the wall at Krak des Chevaliers. Image:Castel del Monte BW 2016-10-14 12-26-11 r.jpg, Octagonal corner towers at
Castel del Monte, Apulia Castel del Monte (Italian language, Italian for "Castle of the Mountain"; Bari dialect, Barese: ''Castìdde du Monte'') is a 13th-century citadel and castle situated on a hill in Andria in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. It was built ...
. File:Istanbul asv2020-02 img14 Topkapı Palace.jpg, Towers of the Topkapı Palace's gate. Image:Citadelle d'Alep.jpg, Wall towers and square gate tower at the
Citadel of Aleppo The Citadel of Aleppo ( ar, قلعة حلب, Qalʿat Ḥalab) is a large medieval fortified palace in the centre of the old city of Aleppo, northern Syria. It is considered to be one of the oldest and largest castles in the world. Usage ...
. Image:Falaise chateau guillaume conquerant 2.jpg, Rectangular keep and round tower at
Château de Falaise The Château de Falaise is a castle from the 12th-13th century, located in the south of the commune of Falaise ("cliff" in French) in the ''département'' of Calvados, in the region of Normandy, France. William the Conqueror, the son of Duke Robe ...
. Image:Metz_Porte_des_Allemands_R01.jpg, Twin towers at the German's Gate,
bridge castle A bridge castle (german: Brückenburg) is a type of castle that was built to provide military observation and security for a river crossing. In the narrower sense it refers to castles that are built directly on or next to a bridge. Sometimes, ...
in
Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Es ...
. Image:Paderne Castle Portugal.jpg,
Albarrana tower An albarrana tower ( ar, البراني, al-barrānī, lit=exterior) is a defensive tower detached from the curtain wall and connected to it by a bridge or an arcade. They were built by Muslims when they occupied the Iberian Peninsula between the ...
in
Castle of Paderne The Castle of Paderne ( pt, Castelo de Paderne) is an ancient fortification located in the civil parish of Paderne, municipality of Albufeira, in the Portuguese Algarve. It was constructed in the later 12th century by Berbers, in an area around ...
(Portugal) File:Guédelon - août 2015 04.JPG,
Guédelon Castle Guédelon Castle (french: Château de Guédelon ) is a castle currently under construction near Treigny, France. The castle is the focus of an experimental archaeology project aimed at recreating a 13th-century castle and its environment using p ...
, experimental archaeology building medieval tower(2015) File:201312 iran yazd 23 (12467658453).jpg, Tower of Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd, Iran File:برج های بیرونی کاروانسرای میاندشت.jpg, Towers of Miandasht caravanserai, Iran. Many
caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...
s featured towers. File:Fortified tower of the medieval castle in Szprotawa Poland.jpg, Fortified tower of the medieval castle in
Szprotawa Szprotawa (german: Sprottau) is a town in western Poland, in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship. It has 11,820 inhabitants (2019). History The region was part of Poland after the emergence of the Piast monarchy in the 10th century. The first m ...
, Poland (2020)


See also

* Flanking tower *
Gate tower A gate tower (german: Torturm) is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on ...
* Half tower * Martello tower * Scottish
Broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...
* Tower house *
Witch tower Witch tower or Witches' Tower (german: Hexenturm) is a common name or description in English and other European languages for a tower that was part of a medieval town wall or castle, often used as a prison or dungeon. History The name is derive ...
*
Shell keep A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte. In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence arou ...


References


Sources

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{{Authority control Castle architecture