machicolation
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
ma·chic·o·la·tion
|
| (Click to enlarge) |
| machicolation |
| (Precision Graphics) |
n.
- A projecting gallery at the top of a castle wall, supported by a row of corbeled arches and having openings in the floor through which stones and boiling liquids could be dropped on attackers.
- One of these openings.
- A row of small corbeled arches used as an ornamental architectural feature.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction:
Top
machicolation
An overhanging defensive structure at the top of a medieval fortification, with floor openings through which boiling water or oil, missiles, etc., could be dropped on attackers.
 |
Random House Word Menu:
Top
categories related to 'machicolation'
- Structural and Decorative Elements - machicolation: opening between corbels or in gallery floor for discharging missiles onto assailants below
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was adopted in the Middle Ages in Europe when Norman crusaders returned from the Holy Land. A machicolated battlement projects outwards from the supporting wall in order to facilitate this. A hoarding is a similar structure made of wood, usually temporarily constructed in the event of a siege. Advantages of machicolations over wooden hoardings include the greater strength of stone battlements, as well as the fireproof properties.
.png)
The word derives from the Old French word *machecol, mentioned in Medieval Latin as machecollum and ultimately from Old French macher 'crush', 'wound' and col 'neck'. Machicolate is only recorded in the 18th c. in English, but a verb machicollāre is attested in Anglo-Latin.[1] The Spanish word denoting this structure, matacán, is similarly composed from "matar canes" meaning roughly "killing dogs", the latter being a reference to infidels.[2] A variant of a machicolation, set in the ceiling of a passage or over a gateway, was known as a meutrier or colloquially as a murder-hole.
Machicolations were more common in French castles than their English contemporaries, and when used in English castles they were usually restricted to the gateway, as in the 13th-century Conwy Castle.[3]
Post-medieval use
Machicolation was later used for decorative effect with spaces between the corbels but without the openings, and subsequently became a characteristic of many non-military buildings (for example, Scottish Baronial architecture from the 16th century onwards, and Gothic buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries). One of the first examples of machicolation that still exists in France is Chateau de Farcheville built in 1291 outside of Paris.
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ T. F. Hoad, English Etymology, Oxford University Press 1986.
- ^ Leonardo Villena (1988). "Sobre las defensas verticales en España: tipología y terminlogía comparadas". In Andrés Bazzana. Guerre, fortification et habitat dans le monde méditerranéen au Moyen Age: colloque. Casa de Velázquez. ISBN 978-84-86839-02-4.
- ^ Brown (2004), p. 66.
- Bibliography
- Brown, R. Allen (2004) [1954]. Allen Brown's English Castles. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-069-8
Further reading
- Mesqui, Jean (1997). Chateaux-forts et fortifications en France. Paris: Flammarion. pp. 493 pp. ISBN 2-08-012271-1.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Machicolation |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Read more
Random House Word Menu
© 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier.
Write Brothers Inc.
All rights reserved.
Read more
