For the modern architectural feature, see, sfn error: no target: CITEREFsnowlaw1846 (, The Popular Encyclopedia; or, Conversations Lexicon, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curtain_wall_(fortification)&oldid=979838568, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 September 2020, at 02:39. Thanks to their tremendous size and weight, stone curtain walls required strong foundations. These are the walls that form a wall completely around a castle. Curtain wall (engelska curtain = gardin och wall = vägg) är en fasadkonstruktion, där fasadmaterialet hänger som en gardin framför byggnadens stomme.Curtain wall-fasader spänner över flera våningar och är i regel utförda av lätta material som glas och plåt (till exempel stålplåt eller aluminiumplåt). During my travels I was fascinated by the history and beauty of castles and I created this space to share my passion with you. Gaps were created in the parapet to allow defenders to fire at attacking soldiers with bows and crossbows, and upright sections of the parapet (known as merlons) were left in place to give the garrison some shelter from enemy fire. Embrasures were also added to merlons in some fortifications. Dover Castle Keep. Stone machicolations performed a similar function.[5]. However, one great weakness of curtain walls was that if besieging troops reached the base of the wall, the defenders found it very difficult to shoot at them – the base of the wall was effectively a ‘blind spot’. Using the contract documents, completely check the surrounding conditions that will receive your materials. A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers (bastions) of a castle, fortress,[1] or town. WORK WITH US Curtain walls were typically around 30 feet high but could of course be much higher than this – the curtain walls at Framlingham castle stood at an imposing 44 feet high. There were even holes in the floor of these wooden constructions, to allow the garrison to shoot directly down onto attackers gathering at the base of the wall, or to drop stones or boiling liquids onto them. The curtain wall is the castle's main defensive component, and several basic structural elements are necessary, though some others that have been added over the years. En curtain wall-fasad bär enbart sin egen vikt. It was usually surrounded by a moat or other feature that made it hard to approach. There were several elements to a curtain wall that increased its defensive capabilities. Merlons often had arrowslits or gun loops built into them, which allowed defenders to shoot from behind cover, without ever exposing themselves. The medieval name for a tower keep. [2], Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the historical sources from Assyria and Egypt. However, there were a small number of shell keep castles, often seen as the successor to motte-and-bailey castles, which used curtain walls. As mentioned earlier, wooden fortifications were weaker, prone to attack by fire, and required regular maintenance work, whereas stone walls were far stronger and more prestigious constructions. Required fields are marked *. The development of concentric castles in the late 12th century saw an increase in the use of curtain walls. Earlier walls were built out of wood, but typically stone was used as it was a far stronger and far more prestigious material – it had more defensive power, but also allowed the castle owner to make a statement of wealth, as stone was expensive to build with. The Romans also used them extensively, and perhaps the greatest example is the Theodosian Land Walls of Constantinople, built in the 5th century – these defences surrounded the landward side of the city with a series of powerful rectangular towers, connected by a continuous circuit of curtain walls. To compensate, fortifications were constructed with very low, yet extremely thick walls. Curtain walls, defensive walls between two towers or bastions, were an intrinsic part of many medieval castles and fortifications. However, usually, just the core of the wall was built of rubble, and a facing of ashlar was added to the outside to give the walls a facing (ashlar is worked stone, usually a block squared off so that it can be stacked like brickwork). Behind the parapet was a wall walk from which the defenders could fight or move from one part of the castle to another.