What is the pointed top of a castle called?

The spires are essentially just big spikes atop the turrets; they may have lighting rods, weather vanes, radio antennae, flags or other decorative features attached. Or they can be just big spikes - what makes them spires is that they are above the roof of the turrets and pointy.

What is the top of a pointy building called?

A pointed cone shape on top of a building is called a spire, especially when it rises from the roof of a church. The part of a church roof that rises above a city skyline or a village's rolling hills, pointing sharply up toward the sky, is its spire.

What are the pointy things on a castle?

A turret (from Italian: torretta, little tower; Latin: turris, tower) is a small tower that extends vertically from a building's wall, such as a medieval castle.

What are the tips of a castle called?

It's a battlement or crenellation. This consists of a parapet (a short wall on top of a roof) with cops or merlons (the solid parts) and crenels or embrasures (the parts you can look through or fire arrows through).

What were the parts of a castle called?

Battlements were most often found surmounting curtain walls and the tops of gatehouses, and comprised several elements: crenellations, hoardings, machicolations, and loopholes. Crenellation is the collective name for alternating crenels and merlons: gaps and solid blocks on top of a wall.

Names and terms of a medieval CASTLE's parts

What is a castle parapet?

A parapet fortification (known as a breastwork when temporary) is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the outer edge of a defensive wall or trench, which shelters the defenders. In medieval castles, they were often crenellated. In later artillery forts, parapets tend to be higher and thicker.

What is the top of a turret called?

When the height of a roof turret exceeds its width it is usually called a tower or steeple in English architecture, and when the height of a ridge turret's roof exceeds its width, it is called a spire in English architecture or a flèche in French architecture.

What is a portcullis in a castle?

Definition of portcullis

: a grating of iron hung over the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent passage.

What is a crenellated parapet?

Crenellation is a feature of defensive architecture, most typically found on the battlements of medieval castles. A battlement is a low, defensive parapet. The act of crenellation is the cutting of crenels into a previously solid and straight parapet wall.

What are the notches on a castle called?

These gaps are termed "crenels" (also known as carnels, or embrasures), and a wall or building with them is called crenellated; alternative (older) terms are castellated and embattled.

What is a castle Talus?

In architecture, the talus is a feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader constructions. It consists of a battered (sloping) face at the base of a fortified wall.

What is a rampart in a castle?

In fortification architecture, a rampart is a length of bank or wall forming part of the defensive boundary of a castle, hillfort, settlement or other fortified site. It is usually broad-topped and made of excavated earth and/or masonry.

What are arrow slits in castles called?

An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.

What is the top of a dome called?

Apex: The uppermost point of a dome (also known as the 'crown'). Cupola: A small dome located on a roof or turret. Extrados: The outer curve of a dome. Haunch: Part of an arch that that lies roughly halfway between the base and the top.

What is the top of a steeple called?

A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples.

What is a lookout on top of a house called?

In architecture, a cupola (/ˈkjuːpələ, ˈkuː-/) is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.

What is a merlon in a castle?

merlon (plural merlons) (architecture, military, historical) Any of the upright projections between the embrasures of a battlement, originally for archers to shield behind while shooting arrows over the embrasures, or through loopholes in the merlons.

What's the difference between a rampart and a parapet?

Rampart: A defensive wall of a castle or walled city, having a broad top with a walkway. Parapet: A protective wall or earth defense along the top of a trench or other place of concealment for troops.

What is a battlement on a roof?

battlement, the parapet of a wall consisting of alternating low portions known as crenels, or crenelles (hence crenellated walls with battlements), and high portions called merlons.

What is the top of a castle turret called?

A battlement is the upper walled part of a castle or fortress. It's usually formed out of a low, narrow wall on top of the outermost protective wall of a fortress or castle. The word ''battlement'' traces to an old French term that means tower or turret, and the original use of battlements was for protection.

What is a postern in a castle?

A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously.

What is a bailey on a castle?

A bailey or ward in a fortification is a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, an early type of European castle was known as a motte-and-bailey. Castles can have more than one bailey.

What are castle buttresses?

A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall.

What is a tower in a castle?

A castle's tower was a fortified structure that provided flanking fire. Rectangular towers gave a good amount of usable internal space. Round ones, or drum towers, were better against siege technology.

What are the towers on a castle wall called?

A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls.