The top of the walls and the towers had pinnacles. Counterforts were used as additional protection from landslip. A scheme of a water tower The tower varied in shape: square, rectangular (the tower in Cherven), circular, oval, triangular, horseshoe-shaped or with irregular shape. Depending on their position and functions they were: entrance, defense, edge or water towers.
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Reinforced counterforts supported the tower. They merge with brick arches and serve as a base for the Transfiguration of God Chapel located at the top of the tower. Most of the pirgos usually had four or five storeys. In the monastery pirgos the most valuable objects (the treasury and the donations) were kept as well as the library.
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The walls include 25 towers with quadrangular base, which also served as counterforts. Inside is an aljibe, a rainwater tank including a cistern to collect and filter water from the river. The Alcazaba is accessed from the Puente Romano through a small enclosure, traditionally known Alcarazejo. This was used to check the traffic of pedestrians and goods to the city.
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A semi-circular apse is set into the east end wall. Its strengthening counterforts that work like buttresses, are shaped as paired columns to lighten their aspect. The groined vaulting of the roof is visible in the choir and the right transept, while the rest of the church has a wooden roof. Fine cloisters, coeval with the cathedral, adjoin it.
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Tower fortress In the center of Khmilnyk, above the river, an eight sided building with loopholes and counterforts can be seen. This is the only preserved castle tower out of the six that were built. In 1534, the king fortified the castle against numerous attacks from the Turks and the Tatars. The castle was built on a man-made hill and town was surrounded with stone walls.
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During the 13th and especially during the 14th centuries the construction of monasteries thrived. Due to the troubled times many monasteries resembled fortresses. They usually had rectangular shape, the buildings surrounded a yard in which the main church was located. From the outside they had high stone walls reinforced with counterforts, and from the inside there were galleries with several stores which led towards the dwellings of the monks.
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The first mention of a lighthouse on the island of Ruhnu is from the year of 1646. The current lighthouse was made in 1877, by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, a company based in France. According to rumours, the unusual design of the Ruhnu Lighthouse was made by Gustave Eiffel, however no actual proof has been given. The lighthouse's structure is made out of metal, supported by four counterforts.
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Between the counterforts are 16 chapels, two side vestibules, a sacristy, a double worm staircase on the eastern side and a worm staircase on the western side. Each of the chapels has its own ribbed vault and is dedicated to the patron saints of its donors — the guilds, rich citizens and one to St. Bartolomew, patron saint of the abbot Bartolomeo of Osek.E. Poche (ed.), Umělecké památky Čech 2., p. 432.
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From the outside they had high stone walls reinforced with counterforts, and from the inside there were galleries with several stores which led towards the dwellings of the monks. The monastery complexes also included farm buildings, stores and workshops. Examples of that type are the Zograf Monastery in Athon; Bachkovo Monastery near Asenovgrad or the Rila Monastery. Although destroyed several times, the overall plan of the later follows the traditions of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
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"Cal Granotes" tannery with counterforts along the ditch The "Cal Granotes" tannery exhibition is a pioneer in its genre. It is located 100 meters away from "Cal Boyer" and was open to the public in December 1990 in the middle of "El Rec", a very old neighborhood spread along a ditch that provided, and still provides, the required water to dozens of tanneries. The "Cal Granotes" 18th century tannery building was restored, and now displays the same tanning processes which were used in the past. The building preserves its original layout to show three totally manual and traditional systems of ox and cow leather tanning for making shoe soles: leather sewing, old Moroccan system and modern Moroccan system.
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Inscription above the entrance to the castle's vestibule The castle followed the vicissitudes of the descendants of Jacques thereafter, passing first to his son Louis, then to his nephew Philibert and then to Philibert's son René, who restored the more comfortable castle at Issogne and made that his residence. Since its construction by Yblet about a hundred and fifty years earlier, the castle had not received any particular renovations or maintenance work. In 1536, René renovated the fortress to take account of the appearance of firearms, with the help of the Spanish captain Pietro de Valle, a famous military architect. He had the base of the cubic structure surrounded by a circuit wall with counterforts and polygonal turrets, adapted to cope with cannons and equipped with pieces of artillery brought from his fief of Valangin in Switzerland.
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