Ring castle
A ring castle is the form of a medieval castle developed from a motte or tower castle .
Instead of the usual moths and tower castles annular earthworks or wooden palisades that served as protection from attackers ring castles with at least one closed circular wall surrounding stone. In the course of the late Middle Ages , the round bering gradually turned into a polygon. Nonetheless, castle research also refers to those castle complexes as ring castles whose surrounding walls have little or no resemblance to a circle.
On the European mainland, ring castles are mostly defined as so-called edge house castles, the majority of which are built onto the inner wall of the ring wall. Walter Hotz differentiates between edge-house castles without a tower, for example Vischering and Seinsfeld Castle , and those complexes that have at least one tower building. As examples of border castles house with a freestanding central tower, which both keep and residential tower could be considered Burg Haag in Upper Bavaria and Burg Lindenfels in Odenwald . In addition, there are also ring castles with several towers, such as Hülchrath Castle in Grevenbroich and Büdingen Castle in Upper Hesse.
On the British Isles, a special form of the ring castle also developed from the middle of the 13th century. This is equipped with several wall rings, the height of which increases from the outside to the inside. In the event of an attack, defending archers or crossbowmen could thus aim at attackers without being obstructed by the wall in view, while the attackers had to overcome several walls. The Welsh Castle Caerphilly Castle was the first of its kind, which was planned from the outset as a ring castle. Other examples are Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey and the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria , built by the Order of St. John .
literature
- Herbert de Caboga-Stuber: Small castle studies . Reprint of the edition from 1961. Rheinland-Verlag Habelt, Cologne, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-7927-0496-X , pp. 14-15.
- Walter Hotz: Small art history of the German castle . 5th edition. Komet, Frechen 1991, ISBN 3-89836-220-5 , pp. 12-18.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Castle Learning Center: Concentric Castles , accessed January 7, 2017.