A flèche ( Fr. for "arrow") is an

outwork An outwork is a minor fortification built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks such as ravelins, lunettes (demilunes), flèches and caponiers to shield bastions and fortification curtain ...

consisting of two converging faces with a parapet and an open

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

, forming an arrowhead shape facing the enemy.''A Dictionary of Military Architecture Fortification and Fieldworks from the Iron Age to the Eighteenth Century''
by Stephen Francis Wyley. Retrieved 23 May 2015. The flèche is similar in plan to other defensive works like the

ravelin A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a ''demi-lune'', after the ''lunette'', the ravelin is placed outside a castle ...

(or demi-lune), but smaller and built in front of the

glacis A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glacis ...

. It was thus part of the outworks of a fortress. It was usually placed in front of the point of a

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

in order to create an additional level of fire.

References

Literature

* Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (eds.): ''Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen''. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2004, * Wolfgang Klefisch: ''Die Neuendorfer Flesche – Vom Festungsmodell zum neupreußischen Festungswerk''. Bornheim (Rhl) 2006 (3rd edn.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleche (fortification) Fortification (architectural elements)