The Butchers' Tower (, ) is one of the nine towers located in the Citadel of
Sighişoara, belonging to
Mureș County
Mureș County (, , ) is a county (''județ'') of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș. The county was established in 1968, after the administrative reor ...
in
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. The Butcher's Tower was built in late 15th century. Originally, the tower was shaped in an eight-sided
prism
PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet ...
, but in the 16th century it was rebuilt on a
hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexagon
A regular hexagon is de ...
al plan and was raised with the specific purpose of enlarge the field of view over the small
bastion
A bastion 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 fire from the ...
built right in front of it. The tower has three floors with five loopholes and the access was made, in the past, by the fortress wall gallery. The fire from 1676 did not affect the tower. The latter together with the bastion had a great importance in the defense of the western side of the Citadel.
Documents from 1680 mention that the tower hosted five
arquebus
An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier.
The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...
es, few
cannonballs and quintals of
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
.
Towers
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