Tourelle
A Tourelle ( double . For "turrets", as diminutive of tour "Tower") is a like a part of a tower looking facade part that of its static ago is freestanding never, but from walls or walls out bulges or protrudes out of them.
In donjons , where the tourelles protrude from the ground at one or more corners with the main masonry, often up to roof height, the diminutive turret refers to the architectural feature of the non-independent part of the building, which has the shape of a "three-quarter tower", but despite its size is only part of the main building. Their main purpose was to allow projectiles (usually cannonballs) to ricochet off largely ineffectively through their semi-circular masonry in the event of a fire.
Centuries later, they appear much more frequently in the form of a bay window , in which they - much smaller than corner curls - protrude from the outer masonry at different storey heights. These turrets were intended for defense with handguns at most , but primarily for observation purposes and because of the required all-round view, they were generally also located in the outer corners of a building.
Furthermore, tourelles are often found in fortifications ( city walls , castles , fortresses, etc.), mostly gun or stair towers that served to strengthen the system.
See also
literature
- Jens Friedhoff: Tourelle. In: Horst Wolfgang Böhme , Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (Hrsg.): Dictionary of castles, palaces and fortresses . Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1 , pp. 242-243, doi: 10.11588 / arthistoricum.535 .
