Damiette chain tower
The chain tower of Damiette was a defense and barrier structure on a small Nile island , which was connected to the city of Damiette by a pontoon bridge . The tower housed a rolling mechanism through which a chain leading over the single navigable arm of the Nile running there could be unloaded and relaxed. When tensioned, the chain was an effective blockade against ships. This prevented enemy ships from advancing in the event of war. In the event of peace, the chain made it possible to collect customs from passing ships and to control shipping traffic on the Nile.
During the Damiette Crusade, Damiette was the main target of the crusaders who besieged the city from April 1218. In order to conquer the city, the chain tower, separate from the city, was one of the first targets. Because of its strategic importance, it was vigorously defended by the Muslims. For the conquest, the crusader and later Paderborn Bishop and Cardinal Thomas Olivier devised a special siege device , a ship tower. For this purpose, two cogs were tied together. A siege platform with scaling ladders was built at the top of four masts of this double nave . With this construction, the storming of the chain tower succeeded on August 24, 1218. Damiette itself was conquered on November 5, 1219 after a long siege.
literature
- Albert Zimmermann , Ingrid Craemer-Ruegenberg, Gudrun Vuillemin-Diem: Oriental culture and the European Middle Ages. De Gruyter, Berlin 1985, ISBN 978-3-11-010531-5 .