Watchtower
A watchtower or watchtower is a structure that is used to monitor a certain area. These structures made of wood, steel, masonry or concrete are part of the observation towers and allow a wide view of the surroundings.
description
Watchtowers are usually manned by guards . These can pursue purely civilian tasks, for example monitoring forest areas due to the risk of fire . In this case, it is also possible and sensible to replace the guard with a rotating surveillance camera, since no personnel have to be on site. More often, however, watchtowers are used to guard an object or specific strip of territory. Most watchtowers have suitable wireless or wired telecommunications equipment . Guard towers of prisons are usually integrated into the prison wall.
Construction heights of up to 20 meters are usually sufficient for monitoring objects. Towers for monitoring forests, on the other hand, can be up to 50 meters high, as they should tower above all the treetops.
Watchtowers can be designed as timber , steel and concrete towers, but masonry designs are also possible.
history
In earlier times, watchtowers were increasingly used to monitor areas on the one hand, but also places, especially with regard to a possible fire hazard. The timely detection and reporting of such dangers was particularly important to prevent conflagrations.
In addition, many watchtowers were part of a communication system. For this purpose, the towers were erected within sight. This enabled messages to be transmitted quickly over long distances using fire or smoke signals. Such systems (“specula”) existed, for example, along the Limes of the Roman Empire or in the form of chalk fires in southeastern Austria at the time of the Turkish invasions.
In the late Middle Ages, individual watchtowers were placed in front of the walls of large cities within sight of signal signs. Such observation posts are called waiting towers or (field) waiting areas.
Examples
Locations of watchtowers can be located:
- in prisons (mostly brick towers, in newer prisons reinforced concrete towers)
- on military areas (mostly steel lattice towers)
- in the water rescue service, at open bathing waters and outdoor pools
- in forest areas for forest fire prevention (steel framework or reinforced concrete structures)
Historical:
- at fortresses such as the Königstein Fortress
- in concentration camps (mostly steel framework structures)
- at the former inner-German border (mostly concrete structures), see B tower
- for important industrial plants, especially in former socialist countries (mostly concrete towers)
Surveillance towers , known as control towers , can also be found in ports and airports, see:
- Historic watchtowers
Medieval watch tower near Schaafheim
GDR command post Schlesischer Busch : Old border watchtower at the Berlin Wall
Observation tower on the GDR border near Geisa (now Museum Point Alpha )
Watchtower in the Buchenwald Memorial , 1983
Reconstructed Roman wooden Limes watchtower near Buch Castle .
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See also
supporting documents
- ↑ Hartwig Schmidt : Archaeological Monuments in Germany - Reconstructed and rebuilt , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8062-1395-X , p. 100
Web links
- Description and construction of different types of tower at Grenzstreife.de
- List of all Atalaias (watchtowers) still in Mallorca at www.mallorca-torres.de