Spy (civil engineering)

Spies for the view of the street on old houses in Kindberg (one on the pink house on the first floor and one on the green house); someone looks through one of the streets

A spy is a small window in the outer wall of a building that allows a view of an entrance area, a street or a square. The main purpose of the spy is to be able to observe public events. The access height on the inside of the building is therefore at eye level for a standing or sitting person, otherwise it would be a skylight. A spy is much smaller than a normal window.

The words peephole, peephole or window hatch are also used synonymously.

Examples of pictures with explanations

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  Mödlinger house on Enzersdorferstrasse with spy, on the first floor (center of picture), which has been bricked up in the meantime.

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  Mödlinger house on the main street with three spies, two on the left side of the picture in the corner of the house and one on the right side of the picture on the upper floor.

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  Mödlinger house with a spy, which looks out onto the main square with the old town hall; on the first floor on the left edge of the picture.

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  Two Mödlinger houses (left) with a spy on Kaiserin Elisabethstrasse. One of them even has the interior lighting shining through.

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  Mödlinger house with spy, in which Ludwig van Beethoven lived in the summer. The spy is on the first floor, to the right of the center of the picture.

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  Mödlinger house with a spy in Klostergasse; the window is extremely narrow and pressed into the inside corner and only one viewing slot from the inside

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  House in Steyr with a spy on the right neighboring house.

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  Alley in Krems with three spies. The spies can be seen on the third house on the left on the first and second floors, and on the penultimate house on the left on the first floor.

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  Perchtoldsdorf house with a spy on Hochstrasse no. 27; in the bay window on the first floor with a view of the gate and the street

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  Perchtoldsdorfer Haus, former slate yard at Hochstrasse 71; Spy in the bay window on the first floor overlooking the street

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  Steyr house at Berggasse 36; Spy in the bay window on the first floor overlooking the street

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  The Sternhaus at Steyrer Stadtplatz 12 with spies in the bay window on each floor with a view of both sides of the square

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  In order to be able to look through the spy on the first floor, the wall of the neighboring house was broken open. Also a spy on the second floor.

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  Spy on the first floor of a Steyr house, from which you can see the Steyr Brück in the Enge Gasse.

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  Spy on the first floor of the two adjacent houses in Steyr.

Spy in doors

Spies are also installed in house doors that lead into a generally accessible hallway or street. These are "peepholes", closed with glass, which, with a diameter of approx. 2 cm, allow you to check the area outside the door without being seen yourself. Often these spies are fitted with a wide-angle lens . So the observer can overlook a larger area. The doors of cells in prisons are regularly fitted with spies.

Spies are also often found in the doors of rooms with dangerous goods (chemicals, flammable, etc.). In this way, the room can be checked without opening the door, without allowing fire or the contents of the room to escape outside in the event of an accident.

Web links

Commons : Spy  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spies appear all over the country ... ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Brochure “Lower Lower Austria”, edition 113. Accessed on June 11, 2011 
2. ↑ Spies appear all over the country ... ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Brochure "Lower Lower Austria", issue 128 (June 2010). Retrieved June 11, 2011 
3. ↑ Spies appear all over the country ... ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Brochure “Design Lower Austria”, issue 117 (October 2007). Retrieved June 11, 2011 
4. ↑ ... small window on the narrow side of the bay ... ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Tours through Enns. Retrieved June 11, 2011