What is the meaning of Portcullis?

What is the meaning of Portcullis?

: a grating of iron hung over the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent passage.

How did a portcullis work?

A portcullis was a heavy grilled door that dropped vertically down through slots or guides, and most often protected the main entrance of the castle. When the castle came under attack, a guard could take a sledge hammer and hit the release latch. The portcullis would quickly drop closed.

What is a portcullis used for?

(especially in medieval castles) a strong grating, as of iron, made to slide along vertical grooves at the sides of a gateway of a fortified place and let down to prevent passage.

What is the door to a castle called?

portcullis

What’s the keep in a castle?

Keep, English term corresponding to the French donjon for the strongest portion of the fortification of a castle, the place of last resort in case of siege or attack.

What was the weakest point of a castle?

The entrance to the castle was always its weakest point. Drawbridges could be pulled up, preventing access across moats. Tall gate towers meant that defenders could shoot down in safety at attacks below. The main gate or door to the castle was usually a thick, iron-studded wooden door, that was hard to break through.

What is the difference between a keep and a castle?

The difference between Castle and Keep. When used as nouns, castle means a large building that is fortified and contains many defences, whereas keep means care, notice. When used as verbs, castle means to house or keep in a castle, whereas keep means to continue in (a course or mode of action).

What are the most important parts of a castle?

These are some of the key parts of a castle.

• The Keep. The keep was a strong tower located at the centre of a castle.
• Curtain Wall. The curtain wall was a defensive wall built to protect the bailey (see below) of a castle.
• The Bailey.
• Moat.
• Battlements.
• Drawbridge.
• Portcullis.
• Arrowslits.

What is the pointy part of a castle called?

In architecture, a turret (from Italian: torretta, little tower; Latin: turris, tower) is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle.

Where are weapons kept in a castle?

A Lord would store his armour and weapons in an armoury. Most of it would be at his main castle, but smaller amounts would be held at his other castles or fortified manors.

What are the key features of a castle?

Castle Features

• Outer defenses.
• Moat.
• Walls (inner and outer)
• Towers (inner and outer)
• Gatehouses, drawbridges and barbicans.
• Inner defenses.
• Baileys or wards.
• Living quarters and support buildings.

How do you defend a castle?

How to defend a castle

1. Building up high. Building a castle up high made it difficult for enemies to get to the castle.
2. Tall towers. Strong towers were added to curtain walls to watch out for enemies.
3. Battlements. Battlements were walls on the roof of a castle.
4. Arrow slits.
5. Moat.
6. Drawbridge.
7. Portcullis.
8. Dungeons.

What are different parts of a castle called?

There were various medieval castle parts that made up a castle which included moats, ramparts, walls, turrets, towers, look outs, and gatehouse.

How do you attack and defend a castle?

The main methods of attacking a Medieval Castle were:

1. Fire.
2. Battering Rams.
3. Ladders.
4. Catapults.
5. Mining.
6. Siege.

How do u attack a castle?

There are a number of ways of assaulting a castle: over the top of the walls using towers or ladders, under the walls using a mine, or through the walls using a battering ram, pickaxes or other tools.

Why did we stop using castles?

Why did they stop building castles? Castles were great defences against the enemy. However, when gunpowder was invented the castles stopped being an effective form of defence. By the end of the 1300s gunpowder was widely in use.

What are the three types of castles?

The three main types of castles are the motte and bailey castle, the stone keep castle, and the concentric castle.

Which castle is the biggest in the world?

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork

How big are castles usually?

Some later medieval castles had walls that were only about 15 to 20 feet (4.6 m to 6 m) high, but the walls of the stronger castles typically measured about 30 feet (9 m) in height and sometimes more. e wall of Eng- land’s Framlingham Castle reached 40 feet (12 m) above the ground.