A bartizan (an alteration of bratticing), also called a guerite, garita, or échauguette, or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging turret projecting from the walls of late-medieval and early-modern fortifications from the early 14th century up to the 18th century.[1] Most frequently found at corners, they protected a warder and enabled him to see his surroundings. Bartizans are generally furnished with oillets or arrow slits.[2] The turret was usually supported by stepped masonry corbels and could be round, polygonal or square.[3][4]
Bartizans were incorporated into many notable examples of Scottish Baronial architecture. In the architecture of Aberdeen, the new Town House, built in 1868–74, incorporates bartizans in the West Tower.
Gallery
editOn walls
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Guarita at Fortaleza de Santiago, Sesimbra Municipality, Portugal
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South-East Bartizan on Greenknowe Tower, Scottish Borders (and another one in the background)
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Garita at Castillo San Cristóbal (San Juan) in San Juan, Puerto Rico
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Devil's Sentry Box, or the "Garita del Diablo", San Cristóbal Castle, in San Juan, Puerto Rico
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Bartizan of Fort del Fanal in Port-Vendres, Roussillon, France
On towers
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Bartizans at Feartagar Castle, Ireland
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Courtyard of Bergh House, 's-Heerenberg, Netherlands
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The Peace Palace bell tower, The Hague, Netherlands
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Martinstor, Freiburg, Germany
See also
edit- Bretèche
- Garret—an attic or top floor room in the military sense; a watchtower from the French word garite
- Hoarding (castle)
References
editWikimedia Commons has media related to Bartizans.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Bartizan". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bartizan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 450. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Bradley, Simon, ed. (2010). Pevsner's Architectural Glossary. Yale University Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-300-16721-4.
- ^ Sturgis, Russell (1901). A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, Volume I. Macmillan. p. 219.