Wehrattika (architecture)
The Wehrattika is a medieval architectural element with which, as a rule, ecclesiastical buildings, originally built around the 11th to 13th centuries without military equipment, in times of threatening warlike events in the 13th / 14th centuries. Century and later have been retrofitted with it. Buildings that were built or expanded from the 13th century onwards were sometimes given defense attics.
A defense attic is usually a strip-shaped parapet wall made of strong masonry, usually made of ashlar, which is built up on the crowns of the outer walls. Behind this parapet, defenders of the building could take cover against projectiles (slingshots) and arrows (bows and crossbows) from attackers, depending on the height, standing, kneeling or lying down and, largely self-protected, shooting at or pelting the attackers.
In buildings that were erected as defense structures, such as castles or city walls, such a device is known as a closed parapet made of masonry on the wall crowns with battlements , which are usually surmounted by head-high battlements, which are seldom found in defense attics.
With the use of efficient firearms (14th / 15th centuries), the stone defense attics and breastworks largely lost their importance. The projectiles of the new weapons produced sharp splinters when they hit masonry, which often caused greater damage to the defenders than the projectiles themselves. That is why at that time they switched to wooden parapets or weir cores (see parapet ).
The classic eaves of medieval church buildings are arranged at the upper end of the horizontal wall crowns of the outer walls. They consist of mostly strong, horizontally laid cornice panels made of ashlar , the front visible edges of which are often beveled and profiled, sometimes adorned with elaborate friezes or barely processed apart from simple bevels. These plates lie on cantilever consoles made of ashlar, over which they are usually pushed. These, in turn, are deeply integrated into the masonry structure in order to be able to carry the loads. They are often simply sculpted in that their downward-facing visible edge is rounded inwards in a circular arc. Other cantilever consoles are more elaborately carved, often with masks, faces, animal heads, whole bodies of humans and animals, plant tendrils and foliage or geometric shapes. A particularly high-quality specialty are the chippings in the Auvergne .
The rafters of the inclined wooden roof construction, the undersides of which were cut horizontally , originally ended on these eaves . The roof loads were transferred to the wall crowns via horizontal purlins running across the rafters . Depending on the type of roof covering, profiled roof tiles or flat roof shingles, the rafters were covered on the top with parallel roof battens or with closed wooden formwork, on which the roofing was then applied. The eaves of the roofing cantilevered a little over the outer cornice. From there the rainwater could drip off freely.
Examples of classic eaves: Notre-Dame-du-Port de Clermont-Ferrand , Saint-Nectaire Priory Church (Puy-de-Dôme) , Saint-Julien (Brioude) Collegiate Church , Cadouin Abbey , St-Amand-de-Coly , Melle ( Deux-Sèvres) and others.
In order to be able to put up the parapet walls of the Wehrattiken, the lower rows of the roofing and the wooden roof structure supporting them had to be removed, to the extent that the parapet could be bricked up and there was enough space behind it for the defenders to move and seek protection could. To do this, the purlins had to be moved a bit inwards and raised a little. Accessible, sloping gutters made of stone or screed were installed in this shelter , which were sealed with pitch or tar and which were connected to stone gargoyles at certain intervals in order to drain the rainwater through the attic to the outside.
As a result of this construction, the original eaves cornices on corbels lost their actual function. In some cases, they were completely or partially removed before the parapets were bricked up. Most of the time, they did not want to do without the corbels decorated with sculptures and left them in place as purely decorative elements.
The Wehrattiken were later, often in the course of early restoration work in the 19th century, both partially and completely dismantled. Since the internal rain gutters often caused water damage, one can also find former defense attics behind which the roof surfaces have been raised so far that their purlins rest on the crowns of the attics, their rafter heads more or less protrude and their eaves partly with modern hanging rain gutters are made of copper sheet.
Wehrattiken are also not infrequently found on gable walls with sloping verges that often tower above the roof surfaces. If their original height in relation to the roof area was not sufficient to cover them, they only had to be walled up further, sometimes with horizontal steps (example: Saint-Amand-de-Coly). Presumably, wooden scaffolding was temporarily erected on the sloping roof.
The corridors behind the defensive attics, on different sides and sections of the building and at different heights, also to other defensive facilities such as defensive towers, defensive dungeons and others, sometimes supplemented by inner defensive corridors under the vaults, were almost always connected to one another with passages, walkways and stairs in the voids between the vaults and the roof surfaces. These were mostly accessed from the church floor via several stone spiral stairs within massive masonry parts. In these cavities were also the storage rooms for projectiles, throwing material and weapons, which were filled in quiet times, as well as storage and recreation rooms for long-term defenders.
St-Junien. Wehrattika, nave, south side, roof later raised
Saint-Avit-Sénieur priory , south side, battlements with battlements, roof later raised
St-Pierre de Chauvigny , Wehrattiken on the choir head, beveled inwards
Cadouin Abbey , St-Pierre, Wehrattika on the choir head, transept chapel still with classic eaves
