The corner towers were
defensive towers built at the corners of castles or fortresses.
Purpose
Two ideas have been advanced about the purpose or value of corner towers in medieval fortresses:
* The corners of a medieval fortress were weak points because they were easier to attack and more difficult to defend than the rest of the walls. Not only this, but enemy combatants that reached the tops of walls at the corners were protected at the point where the walls met, making it more difficult to repulse them. Fortress corner towers were therefore constructed to make up for this vulnerability.
* These towers made possible to provide
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 ...
fire against attacking forces along adjacent walls. This would oblige attackers to concentrate some of their force on the corner towers themselves where they could be dealt with more effectively.
Towers constructed at fortress corners were larger and taller than other towers. At the bottom of these towers were defences, such as
ditch
A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...
es, fences, and sometimes advanced forts or
bastions.
Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle/Architecture militaire – Wikisource
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Corner towers may be seen on the Wall of Philip II Augustus ( Tour du coin (Louvre), Tour de Nesle, ), on the Wall of Charles V (), in the city of Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department.
...
, in the Château de Pierrefonds
The Château de Pierrefonds () is a castle situated in the commune of Pierrefonds in the Oise department in the Hauts-de-France region, Northern France.
It is located on the southeast edge of the forest of Compiègne, northeast of Paris, betw ...
and in the fortress of the Bastille
The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...
.
In Architecture
In architecture of non-defensive structures, like churches and theater buildings, a corner tower is any tower that is protruding upwards from the corner of two walls, and usually has no walls of its own below the roof. While other towers are usually attached to the building by one wall.
References
{{Fortifications
Castle architecture
Fortified towers