Why did castles have arrow slits?

Slits of the height of a man and about a palm's width on the outside allowed defenders to shoot bows and scorpions (an ancient siege engine) from within the city walls. Although used in late Greek and Roman defences, arrowslits were not present in early Norman castles.



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Often, these walls sloped away at the base to redirect objects dropped from the top of the castle wall, ricocheting them out at soldiers on the ground. Because they had walls to protect them, castle defenders would sometimes hunker down and try to wait out their attackers.

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Some buildings have secret areas built into their original plans, such as secret passages in medieval castles, designed to allow inhabitants to escape from enemy sieges. Other castles' secret passages led to an underground water source, providing water during prolonged sieges.

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Curtain wall castles In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, with or without towers, is known as the bailey. The outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site.

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What other rooms were there in a Medieval castle? At the time of Chr tien de Troyes, the rooms where the lord of a castle, his family and his knights lived and ate and slept were in the Keep (called the Donjon), the rectangular tower inside the walls of a castle. This was meant to be the strongest and safest place.

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Castles are usually built on high ground with clear views of the surrounding lands – and both of these things make them difficult to attack.

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Castles are usually built on high ground with clear views of the surrounding lands – and both of these things make them difficult to attack.

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These upright projections resemble teeth, bared at invaders to prevent their attempted entries and at allies to show the owner's strength.

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In medieval fortification, a bretèche or brattice is a small balcony with machicolations, usually built over a gate and sometimes in the corners of the fortress' wall, with the purpose of enabling defenders to shoot or throw objects at the attackers huddled under the wall.

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