. Both the castle complex and urban defenses in medieval France relied upon strong walls and gateways designed to prevent entrance to enemies and ensure access for allies. River towns and ports had fortified bridges and special defenses. Bastide towns, fortified towns of French origin, were forms of military architecture on the grand scale of the urban landscape. Designs of temporary defensive or offensive war machines, technological innovations, and social and economic factors all affected the construction of these works.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, building techniques and weapons improved due to the increased exchanges between cultures and technological advances in metallurgy. More town walls and castles were made of stone, and designs of defensive fortifications aspired to incorporate the idea of effective counterattacks.
In the first half of the 13th century, advances in the design and construction of main gateways included the addition of flanking towers and added height to three or four stories in total. Portcullises, machicolations, meurtrieres, and two-leaved doors helped to defend the gateway passages. A system of shod-iron portcullises operated by ropes and pulleys stood in front of the door, and machicolations opening out into the vault or roof of the gateway stood either between the portcullis and the door or in front of the portcullis. The gateway held two or three sets of these defenses, with an additional machicolation at the gate itself. Such protection deterred surprise attacks and allowed inspection of those entering.
Fortified bridges from the 13th century were protected on the far side by a barbican or tete-du-pont. At Tournai, a fortified bridge protected the curtain walls on either side of the River Scheldt. The surviving Pont des Trous is a three-span covered bridge, pierced by loopholes on both sides and defended by a strong square tower at either end. At Cahors, the enormous six-span Pont Valentre has a tower at each end and a third tower over the middle of the bridge. A fortified gateway in each tower is defended by an embattled parapet, and the two end towers also have machicolations.
In the early 13th centuries, new fortified towns called bastides were planned in southwest France and in England and Wales. The prototype of the bastide was Montauban, founded in 1144 by Alphonse-Jourain, count of Toulouse, to guard the road to Toulouse. Its grid plan with market square was copied by princes, counts, and minor lords throughout the 13th century. Many bastides held strategic positions on the frontiers of principalities, especially on the border between the county of Toulouse and the duchy of Aquitaine, but the main purposes of the bastides were to attract population to the frontiers and to provide the founder with a political base.
Stacy L. Boldrick
[See also: BASTIDE; CAHORS; CARCASSONNE; CASTLE: CHATEAU-GAILLARD: WARFARE]
Enlart, Camille. Manuel d’archeologie frangaise depuis les temps merovingiens jusqu’a la Renaissance: architecture civile etmilitaire. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1932.
Higounet, Charles. “Zur Siedlungsgeschichte Sudwestfrankreichs vom 11. bis zum 14.
Jahrhundert.” Vortrage andForshungen 18(1975).
Toy, Sidney. Castles: A Short History of Fortifications from 1600 B. C. to A. D. 1600. Toronto: Heinemann, 1939.
Trabut-Cussac, J. P. “Bastides ou forteresses?” Moyen age 60 (1954):81-135.
World History
