Bridge castle
A bridge castle was used for military surveillance and security of a river crossing. In a narrower sense, this term only refers to castles that were built directly on or on a bridge . Sometimes, however, castles near a bridge are also referred to as bridges.
The fortifications were often designed as toll castles and were only inhabited by a guard team. In Europe, some examples of bridge castles have survived, particularly in the south and south-east of the continent.
The building type of the bridge castle - which is rarely treated in more detail in the specialist literature - cannot always be clearly differentiated from the "fortified bridge". In medieval Europe, numerous river crossings were secured by towers and porches.
Examples of bridge castles
In Capua, Italy ( province of Caserta ), the Staufer double tower gate of the Roman bridge over the Volturno can be classified as a bridge castle. Friedrich II von Hohenstaufen built a representative "state building" here as the entrance gate to the Kingdom of Sicily , the remains of which give little idea of its former importance.
The largest preserved bridge castle is the rectangular complex of Valeggio sul Mincio ( province of Verona , northern Italy). In the late Middle Ages, Gian Galeazzo Visconti ordered the construction of a mighty bridge fortress under the four-winged main castle between Mantua and Lake Garda . The bridge fort is about 100 meters below the hill fort. Three gate structures are connected by intermediate walls with 14 shell towers. The gate tower below the hilltop castle is noticeably weak. The guards' quarters were in the middle gate. Like the rear gate, this gate construction blocks the transition as a solid crossbar.
The famous bridge castle Stari most of Mostar ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ) 1993 Croatian Bosnian by troops was partially destroyed, but could be reconstructed. Originally around 1450 two large defense towers protected a suspension bridge on both banks, which was replaced by a stone arch in 1566.
Fortified bridges
A characteristic example of a "fortified bridge" is the Pont Valentré near Cahors ( Occitania ) in southern France. Except for the eastern barbican ( Torburg ), which was removed in the 19th century, the structure is almost completely preserved. In Germany and Central Europe only remnants of bridge fortifications could be preserved. Mostly there are only single gate towers, such as in Regensburg ( Stone Bridge ) or Prague ( Charles Bridge ).
literature
G. Ulrich Großmann: Castles in Europe . Regensburg, 2005, pp. 220-223. ISBN 3-7954-1686-8