Tower castle
A tower castle is a small castle that mainly consists of a fortified tower or a tower-like structure that is built on natural ground. It is thus different from the motte-and-bailey castle, which it may resemble, but whose main defensive structure is built on a motte or artificial hill. The tower castle is occasionally also described as a tower house castle or a tower house.
Sometimes, during the development of a castle, it might be converted from a tower castle to a motte-and-bailey type, if the initial, ground level site is later remodelled by the construction of an artificial mound for the keep or Bergfried. The habitable but also fortified tower castle became the permanent private residence of numerous lords during the 11th and 12th centuries.
Since many tower castles had at least a few additional structures such as a curtain wall, often only a few metres long, its overlap with an "ordinary" castle is fluid, as is its transition to the fortified house.
See also
- Fortified house
- Tower house
- Watchtower
Literature
- Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (eds.): Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart, 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1, pp. 248–249.
- v
- t
- e
- Abatis
- Acropolis
- Agger
- Broch
- Burgus
- Castellum
- Castra
- Castros
- Chengqiang
- Circular rampart
- City gate
- Crannog
- Ditch
- Defensive wall
- Dun
- Faussebraye
- Gatehouse
- Gord
- Hillfort
- Landwehr
- Limes
- Nuraghe
- Oppidum
- Palisade
- Pincer gate
- Promontory fort
- Rampart
- Ringfort (Rath)
- Refuge castle
- Schwedenschanze
- Stockade
- Sudis
- Trou de loup
- Vallum
- Wagon fort (Laager)
- Vitrified fort
- Advanced work
- Albarrana tower
- Alcazaba
- Alcázar
- Amba
- Arrowslit
- Barbican
- Bartizan
- Bastion
- Battery tower
- Battlement
- Bawn
- Bent entrance
- Bergfried
- Berm
- Boom
- Bretèche
- Bridge castle
- Bridge tower
- Burh
- Butter-churn tower
- Caer
- Caltrop
- Castle
- Chamber gate
- Chartaque
- Chashi
- Chemin de ronde
- Chemise
- Cheval de frise
- Citadel
- Coercion castle
- Concentric castle
- Corner tower
- Counter-castle
- Curtain
- Drawbridge
- Enceinte
- Embrasure
- Flanking tower
- Fortified buildings (church, house, Dzong)
- Fujian tulou
- Ganerbenburg
- Gate tower
- Gabion
- Glacis
- Guard tower
- Gulyay-gorod
- Gusuku
- Half tower
- Hoarding
- Inner bailey
- Kasbah
- Keep
- Kremlin (Detinets)
- Ksar
- Landesburg
- L-plan castle
- Machicolation
- Merlon
- Moat
- Motte-and-bailey
- Murder hole
- Neck ditch
- Outer bailey
- Outwork
- Peel tower
- Portcullis
- Postern
- Powder tower
- Qalat
- Reduit
- Ribat
- Ricetto
- Ringwork
- Roundel
- Quadrangular castle
- Shell keep
- Shield wall
- Shiro
- Toll castle
- Tower castle
- Tower house
- Turret
- Viking ring fortress
- Wall tower
- Bailey (or ward)
- Watchtower
- Witch tower
- Yagura
- Yett
- Zwinger
- Castle town
- Château
- Dungeon
- Festung
- Fortified gateway
- Loophole
- National redoubt
- Palas
- Picket
- Schloss
- Trench
- Vedette
- See also: Category