Barbican
A barbican (from Old French: barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.
Europe
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Medieval Europeans typically built barbicans outside, or at the edge of, a main line of defenses, and connected them to defensive walls with a walled road called the neck.[1] Barbicans would thus control the entrance to a city or castle at the "choke point".[2] In the 15th century, as siege tactics and artillery developed, barbicans began to lose their significance,[3] but new barbicans were built well into the 16th century. Fortified or mock-fortified gatehouses remained a feature of ambitious French and English residences well into the 17th century. Portuguese medieval fortification nomenclature uses the term "barbican" ("barbacã") for any wall outside of and lower than the main defensive wall that forms a second barrier. The barrier may be complete, extensive or only protect particularly weak areas. The more restrictive term gate barbican refers to structures protecting gates.[4]
Arab world
[edit]The origin of the English word barbican is thought to be found in either Persian or Arabic (see here or here).
Paul Deschamps (1888–1974) interpreted the Arabic word 'bashura[h]' as used in 13th-century chronicles to mean barbican, a defensive structure placed ahead of a gate but this has been debunked, 'bashura' denoting rather an entire section of the outer fortifications, which may include a barbican but also a bastion, gate, tower or all of these.[5][6]
South Asia
[edit]Barbicans were also used in South Asian fortifications where some of their purposes were to protect the main gate from being rammed by war elephants.[7]
East Asia
[edit]Fortifications in East Asia also feature similar high structures. In particular, gates in Chinese city walls were often defended by an additional "archery tower" in front of the main gatehouse, with the two towers connected by walls extending out from the main fortification. Literally called "jar walls", they are often referred to as "barbicans" in English.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "neck". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) "II.5.c. † Fortification. The narrow part of a bastion or embrasure. Obsolete."
- ^ "Castle Barbican". medievalchronicles.com. medievalchronicles. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ "Castle Architecture - Gateways & Barbicans". www.castlesandmanorhouses.com. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ Noé, Paula. "Guia de Inventário — Fortificações Medievais e Modernas" (PDF). www.monumentos.pt (in Portuguese). Instituto da Habitação e Reabilitação Urbana. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Fulton, Michael S. (2016). Artillery in and around the Latin East (1097-1291) (PDF). PhD thesis, Cardiff University. pp. 232–233. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ Raphael, Kate (2010). Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East. Routledge. p. 185. ISBN 9781136925252. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ Nossov, Konstantin (2006). Indian Castles, 1206–1526: The Rise and the Fall of the Delhi Sultanate. illustrator Brian Delf. Oxford: Osprey. p. 20, passim. ISBN 978-1-84908-050-7.
- ^ Quan, Yuan. "New realities 'rebuild' Beijing's lost city gates". China Daily. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- "Barbican Estate history". City of London. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- "Castle Architecture - Gates". Castles and Man or Houses. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
External links
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Media related to Barbicans at Wikimedia Commons- . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). 1911.
- Barbican at Location Textures
- Barbican, A Fortified Outpost Of Old Town Of Krakow, Poland on DreamSite
- Parts of Medieval Castles
- Krakow Barbican – The Last Remains of the City’s Medieval Defences Archived 2019-04-14 at the Wayback Machine on Absolute Tours
- Barbican on Encyclopædia Britannica
- Castle Barbican on Medieval Chronicles
- Barbican on Ancient Fortresses
