"Tower Design and the Influence of Mechanical Artillery" Topic

… in the Thirteenth Century

"Around the start of the thirteenth century, examples of larger and stronger castles appear across Western Europe and the Middle East. A common feature found at many of these strongholds, at least those constructed by the Franks and Ayyubids in Greater Syria, is the use of much larger towers than had previously been built. In an attempt to explain the relatively sudden appearance of these great towers, some scholars have suggested that they were constructed as a response to the development of much more powerful mechanical artillery.

According to many of such theories, it was not just to resist the incoming blows of new, larger counterweight trebuchets that inspired the design of these towers, but also a desire to employ the greatest offensive engines in a defensive capacity, elevating them on top of towers so as to outrange any comparable attacking machines. While a few of the towers built in the Levant may have been capable of supporting such engines by the late thirteenth century, few appear to have been built to fulfil this purpose, let alone any of those built around the start of the century…"

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Armand

Interesting

Happy for that…

Armand