A chamber gate (german: Kammertor) is a type of gateway system on

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

town fortifications and castles that comprises at least two successive gateways linked by an easily defended passageway between two walls. Chamber gates can be built in the space between two

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. Fo ...

s or built into an enceinte as an independent gateway. Because relatively few fortifications are surrounded by a complete second defensive wall, chamber gates are frequently found in short ''

Zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence ...

'' sections. Chamber gates were often integrated into existing buildings and protected by the defensive levels above them, by

defensive tower 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 castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and ful ...

s or by portcullises and drawbridges.

Literature

* Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon''. Flechsig, Wurzburg, 2000, , p. 26.

Literature

See also