|
Postern
A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing defenders to make a sortie on the besiegers. Placed in a less exposed, less visible location, they were usually relatively small, and therefore easily defensible.Van Emden, Wolgang. "Castle in Medieval French Literature", ''The Medieval Castle: Romance and Reality'' (Kathryn L. Reye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tower Hill Postern
The Tower Hill Postern was a small fortified entrance (postern) at the eastern terminal point to the London Wall, at the junction of the Wall and the Tower of London moat. The size of the gateway indicates that it was suitable for pedestrians and horsemen but not wide enough to accommodate wagons, carts or carriages. Antecedent gateway There is no evidence for a gateway on the site earlier than the building erected by Edward I around 1297-1308, and no reason for there to have been a gateway there before the expansion of the Tower of London. There are a number of circumstantial arguments including arguments based on road alignments, records of parochial disputes and indirect references by William Fitzstephen to indicate that there may have been a gateway further south that was replaced when much of the wall was demolished as part of the expansion of the Tower. History The Tower of London moat was dug in around 1270 as part of a scheme to extend the Tower, and part of the London W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York City Walls
York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as York City Walls, the Bar Walls and the Roman walls (though this last is a misnomer as very little of the extant stonework is of Roman origin, and the course of the wall has been substantially altered since Roman times). The walls are generally 13 feet (4m) high and 6 feet (1.8m) wide. History Roman walls The original walls were built around 71 AD, when the Romans erected a fort (castra) occupying about 50 acres or 21.5 hectares near the banks of the River Ouse. The rectangle of walls was built as part of the fort's defences. The foundations and the line of about half of these Roman walls form part of the existing walls, as follows: *a section (the west corner, including the Multangular Tower) in the Museum Gardens *the north-west and north-ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moorgate
Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, but gave its name to a major street, ''Moorgate'', laid out in 1834. The area around the street and around Moorgate station is informally also referred to as ''Moorgate''. The Moorgate district is home to many financial institutions and has many notable historic and contemporary buildings. Moorgate station was the site of the Moorgate tube crash of 1975, when a Northern City Line train failed to stop and hit a brick wall killing 43. This resulted in systems, known as Moorgate control, being installed on the Underground in order to stop trains at dead-ends. The gate The earliest descriptions of Moorgate date from the early 15th century, where it was described as only a postern in the London city wall. Located between Bishopsgate and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek '' phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Gate (Jerusalem)
The Golden Gate or Gate of Mercy ( he, שער הרחמים, translit=Sha'ar Harahamim, lit=Gate of Mercy'';'' ar, باب الذهبي, translit=Bab al-Dhahabi or al-Zahabi, lit=Golden Gate) is the only eastern gate of the Temple Mount, and one of only two Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem that used to offer access into the city from the East side. The gate has been sealed since the Middle Ages. Its interior can be accessed from the Temple Mount. In Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through this gate, coming from the Mount of Olives. Christians and Muslims generally believe that this was the gate through which Jesus entered Jerusalem. Names Each of the two doors of this double-gate has its own name: ''Bab al-Rahma'', "Gate of Mercy", for the southern one, and ''Bab al-Taubah'', the "Gate of Repentance", for the northern one. Another Arabic name is the Gate of Eternal Life. In the Mishnah (Middot 1:3), the eastern gate of the Second Temple compound is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Layerthorpe
Layerthorpe is a village in the unitary authority area of the City of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is outside the city walls of York. The road through Layerthorpe from the bridge over the River Foss to Heworth is also shares the same name. Origin of the name York historian Francis Drake suggested in his ''Eboracum'' (1736) that the first part of the name referred to a resting-place (or "lair") used by deer on the edge of the Forest of Galtres. The second part ( "thorpe") is a placename suffix used within the Danelaw for small settlements adjacent to larger ones. The earliest known reference (in a charter of 1184–9) calls the village "Leirthorp". History After William the Conqueror created a dam in the River Foss in 1069 to create a moat around York Castle, the river flooded in the Layerthorpe area, forming a large lake that would become known as the "King's Pool" (or "King's Fishpool"). The King's Pool became an integral part of the city's defences during the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sally Port
A sally port is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter and prevents direct enemy fire from a distance. It may include two sets of doors that can be barred independently to further delay enemy penetration. From around 1600 to 1900, a sally port was a sort of dock where boats picked up or dropped off ship crews from vessels anchored offshore. That meaning occasionally still occurs, especially in coastal Great Britain. Etymology and historical usage The word ''port'' is ultimately from Latin for door. Often the term postern is used synonymously. It can also mean a tunnel, or passage (i.e., a secret exit for those besieged). A ''sally'', ultimately derived from Latin (to jump), or "salle" sortie, is a military maneuver, typically during a siege, made by a defending force to harass isolated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castlegate (York)
Castlegate is a historic street in York, England, which leads to York Castle. History The street roughly follows the line of Roman road, which ran between the fortress of Eboracum and the River Ouse, and remains of residential Roman buildings have been found in excavations. A hoard from the Viking Jorvik period has also been found, while St Mary's Church, on the street's north-east side, appears to have pre-Conquest origins. In the Mediaeval period, it linked the city of York with the bailey of York Castle, although no references to it are known from before the 14th-century. In this period, its north-east side was dominated by St Mary's, and its south-west side by the York Franciscan Friary. In the Georgian period, the street was a desirable location to live, and the mansions of Fairfax House and Castlegate House were erected. Castlegate was shortened slightly in 1826, when the castle's prison was extended, and the street lost importance after 1881, when Clifford Street w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chanson De Geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours and trouvères, and the earliest verse romances. They reached their highest point of acceptance in the period 1150–1250.Hasenohr, 242. Composed in verse, these narrative poems of moderate length (averaging 4000 lines) were originally sung, or (later) recited, by minstrels or jongleurs. More than one hundred ''chansons de geste'' have survived in approximately three hundred manuscripts''La Chanson de Roland,'' 12. that date from the 12th to the 15th century. Origins Since the 19th century, much critical debate has centered on the origins of the ''chansons de geste'', and particularly on explaining the length of time between the composition of the ''chansons'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Four Sons Of Aymon
''The Four Sons of Aymon'' (french: esQuatre fils Aymon, nl, De Vier Heemskinderen, german: Die Vier Haimonskinder), sometimes also referred to as ''Renaud de Montauban'' (after its main character) is a medieval tale spun around the four sons of Duke Aymon: the knight Renaud de Montauban (also spelled ''Renaut'', ''Renault'', it, Rinaldo di Montalbano, nl, Reinout van Montalbaen), his brothers Guichard, Allard and Richardet, their magical horse Bayard ( it, Baiardo), their adventures and revolt against the emperor Charlemagne. The story had a European success and echoes of the story are still found today in certain folklore traditions. Medieval and Renaissance texts French versions The oldest extant version of the tale is an anonymous Old French ''chanson de geste'', ''Quatre Fils Aymon'', which dates from the late 12th century and comprises 18,489 alexandrine (12-syllable) verses grouped in assonanced and rhymed laisses (the first 12,120 verses use assonance; critics suggest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Golden Gate (Jerusalem)")
