The town's arms might be described thus: Azure a round castle wall embattled with two portcullises open, the wall enclosing two towers, the whole Or, with peaked roofs gules, between the portcullises an inescutcheon azure with a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules among six billets Or. The inescutcheon is the arms borne by the House of Nassau. The town's flag also bears this design set against orange and blue, Nassau's colours.
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The entrance to the keep is protected by a drawbridge and a fortified inner gatehouse entrance with two portcullises with a killing area between them covered by three so-called murder holes, through which the defenders could attack any intruders trapped between the two portcullises. On either side of the gatehouse are located guardhouses, which were converted into prison cells in the later history of the castle. When on duty, the garrison would spend most of its time in the gatehouses. Inside the gatehouse is a lower level with a tide mill for grinding corn.
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Above the shields is a further single shield that shows the arms of Darcy and Meynell impaled, reflecting the original marriage that united the families and brought the castle into the hands of the Darcys. The entrances would originally have been blocked by portcullises made of wood or metal that could be raised or lowered by winches set into the gatehouse walls. The grooves for the portcullises are still visible today. After passing through the entrances, visitors would have crossed through a vaulted central passage, some elements of which can still be seen.
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On each corner is a small carved circle containing carved sheafs and portcullises. The roof consists of a tiled spire, and at its apex is a lead finial surmounted by a copper fish which acts as a weather vane.
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The elaborate gatehouse, with an excessive five sets of doors and six portcullises, also appears to have been designed to impress visitors and to invoke an image of an Arthurian castle, then believed to have been Byzantine in character.Liddiard (2005), p. 58.
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The gates that once guarded the entrances to the City of Copenhagen through the City Ramparts were stone buildings that had a single archway through the middle for traffic, protected by gates and portcullises. There were four gates affording access to the city.
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The three-storey gatehouse to Raglan Castle dates from the 1460s and is approached over a stone bridge restored in 1949.Kenyon (2003), p.26. Characterised by extensive machicolations and gunloops, the gatehouse would originally have had a twin- set of portcullises and a drawbridge.Kenyon (2003), pp.27–28.
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A north chapel once stood over the entrance corridor on the north face of the pyramid. This leads into a descending corridor built from limestone. The corridor terminates at a vestibule that leads into the horizontal passage. Midway along the horizontal passage is the main barrier of three pink granite portcullises.
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In Blue 3 (2.1) silver lilies, accompanied by silver portcullises, six growing out of the top edge on the sides and three from the bottom edge of the shield. On the helmet with a blue and silver mantle, from a five-piece portcullis, arises a gold-crowned natural bear with a collar.
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On the north side lies the entrance to the underground chamber system, which was sealed by two granite portcullises indicating that a burial took place. A broken sarcophagus lid of blue-grey basalt was found in the burial chamber by Cecil Mallaby Firth during his brief excavations of the pyramid in 1930.
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The coat of arms of the borough was granted on 19 June 1891. The arms is per fess gules and azure on a fess ermine between in chief a lion passant guardant between two portcullises or and in base a swan argent upon water proper; a representation of the ancient Palace of Richmond proper between two roses gules barbed and seeded proper. The crest was a stag regardant proper, holding in its mouth two roses on one stem, one argent, the other gules, and supporting with the dexter fore hoof a shield or a wreath vert. The portcullises, roses and lion were all associated with King Henry VII, who brought the rival houses of Lancaster and York together and helped build the palace.
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The pyramid had a length of approximately and was probably aligned with the pyramid of Teti. Virtually nothing is left of the superstructure, hence its name. On the north side lies the entrance to the underground chamber system, which was sealed by two granite portcullises. A broken sarcophagus lid was found in the burial chamber.
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Plan of the underground chambers of the pyramid, showing the open granite portcullises. The pyramid originally stood at 105 royal cubits in height, which is about . The pyramid was constructed with a mudbrick core and a limestone outer casing with its backing stones. These and the limestone casing were both quarried by stone robbers, which left the core unprotected.
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A water gate overlooks a protected stairway of 127 steps that runs down to the foot of the cliffs. The gatehouse has two massive "D-shaped" defensive towers flanking the entrance.; The passage into the castle was guarded by three portcullises and at least two heavy doors. The gatehouse has two upper floors, broken up into various rooms.
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Isometric view of the hypogeum The hypogeum is remarkable for its size and complexity, and is the largest and most elaborate of all known pyramids dating from the late 12th and 13th dynasties. The passageway changes directions and level several times, and was planned to contain four portcullises, more than any other pyramid from that period.
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The passage continues west through the second (on the left) and third (on the right) portcullises, each of which involves a level change without stairs, and finally arriving to the last fork, which is a hallway leading to the two sarcophagus chambers. The larger sarcophagus chamber directly ahead (west), and the smaller sarcophagus chamber to the right (north).
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At the top of the Grand Gallery, there is a step giving onto a horizontal passage some metres long and approximately in height and width, in which can be detected four slots, three of which were probably intended to hold granite portcullises. Fragments of granite found by Petrie in the Descending Passage may have come from these now-vanished doors.
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Towers would be normally be spaced at intervals on circuit walls.Elton (1996) 162–3 #Gate towers, one on each side of the gate and projecting out from the gate to allow defenders to shoot into the area in front of the entrance. The gates themselves were normally wooden with metal covering plates to prevent destruction by fire. Some gates had portcullises.
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169; MSH52, Southampton HER, accessed 14 October 2011. The Arcades form part of the surviving west walls and are a unique feature in England; their closest architectural equivalent are in Rouen, France.MSH919, Southampton HER, accessed 14 October 2011. The West Gate still stands three storeys high and was originally defended by two portcullises; the windows on the west side of the gate are the original medieval designs.
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A little to the east of the keep is the main gatehouse. Like the keep, it was subject to slighting at the end of the Civil War. Some elements of the Paganell's Norman castle remain in the structure but it mainly dates from the rebuilding carried out after 1262 by the de Somery family. A double gateway with two portcullises was constructed at this time.
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The western entrance passage is blocked by two stone blocks which were not lowered vertically, as in other pyramids, but slid down 45° ramps to block the passage. One of these was lowered in antiquity and a hole has been cut through it, the other remains propped up by a piece of ancient cedar wood. The connecting passage referenced above enters the passage between the two portcullises.
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The memorial consists of an enclosure of bronze railings and panels on a sandstone base, which stretch on four sides around the Earl's grave, with three bronze figures at the head of the grave. The railings are long, wide, and high. The figures are respectively , , and high. The panels are decorated with heraldic symbols of the Grosvenor family, and include portcullises, wheat sheaves, coronets, and roses.
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A small stairway leads to two portcullis chambers similar to those found in the main pyramid. Here too the portcullises were left open. Beyond is an antechamber branching to the north and south to two burial chambers lined with masonry and both housing a large quartzite coffer. The lids of the coffers were found propped on blocks as they should be before any burial.
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185 f. The border of the barony was protected in the north and northeast by a thick, impenetrable hedge (Heeg or Landheeg), and, in many places, also by a wide ditch and bank known as a Landwehr (border). In some places, gaps were made which had portcullises. One such passageway was supposed to have been on the border at the Großer Wolfstein west of Obermarienberg.
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The top of the gatehouse is machicolated, and the approach is overlooked by gun-loops in the gatehouse towers. The gatehouse is the only part of the castle which has gun-loops, and the curtain wall and towers are studded with windows for domestic use rather than military. There are guardrooms on the ground floor and a basement beneath them. The passage would originally have had three wooden portcullises.
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28 In comparison to Norman castles the gatehouses were much weaker in design, with almost no use of portcullises or spiral staircases, and the stonework of the outer walls was also generally inferior to Norman built castles.King (1991), pp. 130–131. The later native Welsh castles, built in the 1260s, more closely resemble Norman designs; including round towers and, in the case of Criccieth and Dinas Brân, twin-towered gatehouse defences.
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Under the Suttons, a barbican was added to the outside of the gatehouse so that the whole structure is sometimes called the 'Triple Gate'. Originally the gatehouse was connected to the keep by a thick curtain wall. When built, the gatehouse had three floors with the machinery for operating the portcullises on the first floor and a guard room on the second floor. Above the guard room were the battlements.
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The entry leads into a long vertically sloping corridor inclined at 22° that leads to a vestibule at its bottom. The vestibule is long and wide. From the vestibule, a long horizontal passage follows a level path to the antechamber and is guarded by three granite slab portcullises in succession. The passage ends at an antechamber, a room measuring by , located under the centre axis of the pyramid.
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From the late 19th century into the early mid-20th century, bloodsucking flies sometimes referred to as "Golubac mosquitoes" thrived in the area. They were particularly dangerous to livestock, some years killing off entire herds of cattle. After World War I, a road was constructed that went through both of the fort's portcullises. This road is the shortest link between Serbia and eastern parts of the Balkan peninsula.
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The classic Edwardian gatehouse, with two large, flanking towers and multiple portcullises, designed to be defended from attacks both within and outside the main castle, has been often compared to the earlier Norman keeps: some of the largest gatehouses are called gatehouse keeps for this reason.Pettifer (2000b), p.320; Brown, p.69. The quadrangular castle design that emerged in France during the 13th century was another development that removed the need for a keep.
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Golubac consists of three main compounds guarded by 9 towers, 2 portcullises and a palace, all connected by fortress walls thick. In front of the fortress, the forward wall (I) doubled as the outer wall of the moat, which connected to the Danube and was likely filled with water. A settlement for common people was situated in front of the wall. As is the case with many fortresses, Golubac's structure was modified over time.
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The corridor has a slight angle toward the east, and is the last built to do so. The corridor ends at a vestibule, through which a second corridor lined with limestone, the horizontal passage, is accessed. Remnants of broken vessels were discovered in the vestibule, suggesting that certain burial rituals had been performed there. The horizontal passage was guarded by three granite portcullises near the beginning of the corridor, and a fourth granite portcullis near its end.
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The base of a semi-octagonal tower can be seen at the southeast corner of the castle and parts of a tower at the southwest corner. The ivy-clad gatehouse is between these and is a substantial structure where you can see the slits for the two portcullises and the fittings for the sets of strong doors. The remains of the keep are largely rubble and little remains of the bailey walls on the east, north and south sides.
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It would be backed by one or more portcullises and gates. Access to the bridge could be resisted with missiles from machicolations above or arrow slits in flanking towers. The bridge would be raised or lowered using ropes or chains attached to a windlass in a chamber in the gatehouse above the gate-passage. Only a very light bridge could be raised in this way without any form of counterweight, so some form of bascule arrangement is normally found.
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It had a base length of with an incline of 56° which gave the pyramid a height of . The substructure was accessed through an entrance in the pavement of a chapel on the north face of the pyramid. The entry led into a downward sloping corridor, followed by a 'corridor-chamber' with three granite portcullises that guarded the entrance into the horizontal passage. The horizontal passage ends at the antechamber of the substructure and is guarded by a fourth granite portcullis.
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At the top of the stairs leading from the courtyard, any medieval visitor would have found themselves in a passageway that, on the left, led into the great hall behind a wooden screen with arched openings. This room was the formal heart of the castle, where the whole household would meet for feasts and special occasions. The walls were covered in rich fabrics that concealed machinery that controlled the two portcullises. In the 1570s, Matthew Arundell refurbished the Great Hall.
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Louise Jury, Museum pays £650,000 for Native American art, The Independent, 17 June 2004. Accessed 25 May 2009.Native North America: The Stonyhurst Collection, British Museum, UK. A sumptuous gold-embroidered cope, decorated with Tudor roses and portcullises, from a set of vestments used by the household of Henry VII and bequeathed by him to Westminster Abbey, has been in the Victoria and Albert Museum since 1999.Google books Henderson, Virginia K., in Traditions and transformations in late medieval England, ed.
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Here the classic Edwardian gatehouse design has been transformed into an asymmetrical structure, with one tower much larger than the other. The gatehouse included portcullises, murder- holes and a drawbridge. Beyond the gatehouse lies a large barbican, inspired by a similar design of the period at the Tower of London and possibly built by the same workmen, designed to protect the causeway leading to the gatehouse.Pettifer, p. 97; Ashbee, p. 5 comments on the use of the same royal workmen.
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Sir Hugh was appointed High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Shropshire in 1222 and High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1226 and 1238. He held eleven manors in England: in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland. He is reported to have been instrumental in the repairs of 1232 to Porchester Castle in Hampshire, a site first used by third-century Romans. Sir Hugh had this ever-evolving castle updated to include a new forebuilding to the keep and portcullises for the gatehouses, and completed repairs to the wall and hall.
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Square keeps remained common across much of England in contrast to the circular keeps increasingly prevailing in France; in the Marches, however, circular keep designs became more popular.King (1991), p. 82. Castles began to take on a more regular, enclosed shape, ideally quadrilateral or at least polygonal in design, especially in the more prosperous south. Flanking towers, initially square and latterly curved, were introduced along the walls and gatehouses began to grow in size and complexity, with portcullises being introduced for the first time.
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Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity when it became necessary to protect the main entrance to a castle or town. Over time, they evolved into very complicated structures with many lines of defence. Strongly fortified gatehouses would normally include a drawbridge, one or more portcullises, machicolations, arrow loops and possibly even murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep, sometimes referred to as a "gate keep".
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The gates were repaired and rebuilt many times. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 all of the City gates were unhinged and had their portcullises wedged open, rendering them defenceless, but they were retained as a visible sign of the prestige of the City. Most of the gates were demolished around 1760 due to traffic congestion. The positions of all the gates are now marked by a main road with the same name, except for Cripplegate, which is a tiny street somewhat north of the position of the gate.
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This core was overlaid by casing stones of white Tura limestone, which were stolen in antiquity. At the time of its construction the pyramid stood high, with a base length of and an inclination angle of 52°. In the interior of the pyramid a descending passage led, behind three granite portcullises, to an antechamber, three magazine rooms and the burial chamber. In the burial chamber, pieces of alabaster and a faience bead on a gold thread were discovered, as well as many fragments of what was originally a large sarcophagus of dark grey basalt.
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The substructures were dug into the hard sand, some below the surface, and lined with smooth limestone blocks. A passage leads to a quartzite portcullis, intended to stop tomb robbers from reaching the burial chamber. Beyond the portcullis was a stone-lined chamber in dimensions, the floor of which hid a further passage blocked by two portcullises, one of limestone and another of quartzite. Beyond, lies the burial chamber housing a massive sarcophagus built from three blocks of quartzite sandstone, roughly hewn on the outside, but well polished on the inside.
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Advances in the prosecution of sieges encouraged the development of a variety of defensive counter-measures. In particular, Medieval fortifications became progressively stronger – for example, the advent of the concentric castle from the period of the Crusades – and more dangerous to attackers – witness the increasing use of machicolations, as well the preparation of hot or incendiary substances. Arrow slits, concealed doors for sallies, and deep water wells were also integral to resisting siege at this time. Designers of castles paid particular attention to defending entrances, protecting gates with drawbridges, portcullises and barbicans.
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The Porte Saint-Denis was originally a gateway through the Wall of Charles V that was built between 1356 and 1383 to protect the Right Bank of Paris. The medieval fortification had two gates and was surmounted with four towers. Additional portcullises defended the outer gate along with a drawbridge and rock-cut ditch. However, with the advent of gunpowder and the development of cannons and bombards, the walls were eventually partly torn down in the 1640s to make way for the larger and more fortified Louis XIII Wall.
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The 'gates' that once guarded the entrances to the City of London through the City Wall were multi-storey buildings that had one or two archways through the middle for traffic, protected by gates and portcullises. They were often used as prisons, or used to display executed criminals to passers-by. Beheaded traitors often had their head stuck on a spike on London Bridge, then their body quartered and spread among the gates. After the curfew, rung by the bells of St Mary le Bow and other churches at nine o'clock, or dusk, (whichever came earlier) the gates were shut.
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In earth and timber castles, the gateway was usually the first feature to be rebuilt in stone. The front of the gateway was a blind spot and to overcome this, projecting towers were added on each side of the gate in a style similar to that developed by the Romans. The gatehouse contained a series of defences to make a direct assault more difficult than battering down a simple gate. Typically, there were one or more portcullises – a wooden grille reinforced with metal to block a passage – and arrowslits to allow defenders to harry the enemy.
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Helfenburk Castle A chamber gate () is a type of gateway system on medieval town fortifications and castles that comprises at least two successive gateways linked by an easily defended passageway between two walls. Chamber gates can be built in the space between two enceintes or built into an enceinte as an independent gateway. Because relatively few fortifications are surrounded by a complete second defensive wall, chamber gates are frequently found in short Zwinger sections. Chamber gates were often integrated into existing buildings and protected by the defensive levels above them, by defensive towers or by portcullises and drawbridges.
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It is buttressed and crenellated, with mock portcullises built into the round arches above the doorway and windows. The interior walls are lined with a carved wooden dado with Celtic designs, and there is a rubble fireplace surmounted by a heraldic panel depicting St Andrew; the chimney above the fireplace is disguised externally to look like a turret. Built into the walls of the enclosure around the kirk are memorials for members of the Brown family, including James Brown himself, who died in 1920. The building is maintained by a charity, the Kirkandrews Kirk Trust, and used for ecumenical religious services, weddings and private functions.
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The substructure of the pyramid was very similar to Unas's and Djedkare Isesi's; it had a descending corridor and horizontal passage guarded at about the middle by three granite portcullises, leading to an antechamber flanked to its east by the serdab with its three recesses and to its west by the burial chamber containing the sarcophagus. The walls of the chambers and a section of the horizontal passage were inscribed with Pyramid Texts, as in Unas' pyramid. The mortuary temple, with the exception of its entrance, conforms to the same basic plans as his predecessors. The complex contained a cult pyramid to the south-east of the pyramid with base length .
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A century later Sir John Stanley added the south aisle and chantry dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The ancient roses and portcullises surmounted by crowns in a window of the south aisle signify the connection between the Stanleys and Henry VII, who is said to have met secretly with Lord Stanley at Elford on the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field and persuaded Stanley to desert Richard III and join his side. In 1598 the old Norman tower was replaced by the current tower which is embattlemented with four pinnacles. The date can be seen on the exterior of the tower today.
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Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were commonplace.
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Recent work by historian Abigail Wheatley suggests that the design of Caernarfon was indeed an assertion of Edward's authority, but that it drew on imagery from Roman sites in Britain with the intent of creating an allusion to Arthurian legitimacy for the king. There were two main entrances, one leading from the town (the King's Gate) and one allowing direct access to the castle without having to proceed through the town (the Queen's Gate). Their form was typical of the time: a passage between two flanking towers. If the King's Gate had been completed, a visitor would have crossed two drawbridges, passed through five doors and under six portcullises, and negotiated a right-angle turn before emerging into the lower enclosure.
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The ensuing negotiations ended with a compromise: one part each was allotted to the von Dalberg family and the municipality. The four roads leading out of the village in the cardinal compass directions were particularly well secured with portcullises at the four gates (Pforten), (the Hangen-Weisheimer Pforte, the Flomborner Pforte, the Dintesheimer Pforte and the Alzeyer Pforte). At the dawn of the 20th century, the dyke had become overgrown mainly with elms and since 11 March 1927 it has been a protected natural monument called the Effenkranz (“Elm Wreath”), or sometimes the Allee. Dutch elm disease, however, did not spare the Effenkranz, and between 1976 and 1981, all elms had to be felled, and they were replaced with 550 other trees.
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John de Havilland used a coat of arms recorded at the 1623 visitation of Gloucester. The arms are blazoned "Argent three Towers triple-towered Sable Portcullises Gules". As York Herald, de Havilland impaled these with his maternal arms of von Sonntag, blazoned "Azure a Sun in splendor proper" in the window of St Peter's Church, illustrated below, and used a Chief of Religion as a Knight of Malta in addition to setting his shield on the Maltese Cross. See image (4) below by Bedford Lemere & Co - a firm of British architectural photographers active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.... The von Sonntag arms are otherwise recorded as "argent a sun in splendour proper" in a 1963 monograph, although this may be an error, as it breaches the heraldic rule of tincture.
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The hypogeum was designed to be virtually impervious to plunderers by several sophisticated expedients, such as direction changes, level changes, trapdoors hidden beneath the pavement, ceiling, and side walls, and the four portcullises, and possibly a decoy burial chamber (if indeed the second sarcophagus chamber was intended as a false chamber, as proposed above). Despite the precautions, robbers managed to make their way into the burial chambers only to find them empty. There are indications that the pyramid was first violated in antiquity and at least another time much later. The second entry was likely during the times of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mūn (9th century CE) who entered the Great Pyramid of Giza. Gustave Jéquier was able to reach the chambers through the corridor and a thieves’ tunnel.
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Prior to 1485, many wealthy and noble landowners lived in homes that were not necessarily comfortable but built to withstand sieges, though manor houses that were only lightly fortified, if at all, had been increasingly built. Castles and smaller manor houses often had moats, portcullises and crenelations designed for archers to stand guard and pick off approaching enemies. However, with the arrival of gunpowder and cannons by the time of Henry VI, fortifications like castles became increasingly obsolete. 1485 marked the ascension of the Tudor Henry VII to the throne and the end of the Wars of the Roses that had left the royal coffers in deep trouble-Yorkists had raided the treasury just after the death of Edward IV. In 1487 Henry passed laws against livery and maintenance, which checked the nobility's ability to raise armies independent of the crown, and raised taxes on the nobility through a trusted advisor, John Morton.
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By the time of Tudor City, the Neo-Tudor style had already been used on a limited number of urban apartment buildings, including Hudson View Gardens in Washington Heights (New York City) and several erected by the Fred F. French Company. (Downloadable; page numbers in this citation are as given by a pdf reader.) The architects and designers of Tudor City, led by chief architect H. Douglas Ives, used a broad range of Tudor Revival details, including towers, gables, parapets, balustrades, chimney stacks, oriels, bay windows, four-centred arches, pinnacles, quatrefoils, fish bladder moldings, Tudor roses, portcullises (a symbol of the Tudor sovereigns), and rampant lions carrying standards. Much of the Tudor effect in Tudor City is gained through the use of carved or cast stone and terracotta detail. The Tudor skyline of the complex is complemented at ground level by a series of stained glass windows ranging from those with lightly tinted non-figural designs to scenes depicting the history of New York.
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