this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
28 points (100.0% liked)
Illustrations of history
708 readers
49 users here now
This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!
Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to [email protected]
Photos of ruins should go to [email protected]
Photos of the past should go to [email protected]
founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What's with the wooden gallery out front? Seems a dangerous place to be
It's called "hoarding", a temporary wooden construction that would do two things.
Add lots and lots of shooting positions without making lots and lots holes of in your brick wall.
Make it possible to drop rocks straight down on enemies who are at your walls.
The very obvious downside is that instead of having a thick wall between you and the enemy, you've only got a wooden board there. That's fine if they're shooting arrows, not so much against siege weapons or large guns.
So the hoardings would usually be empty, except during an assault, the logic being that you're going to die anyway if you lose.
Side note: since these were temporary, I doubt they would have had baked roof tiles on them. Maybe it's a kind of fireproofing, which was definitely an issue? It takes a lot of work to lay tiles though.
Well yes exactly, it looks essentially permanent but fragile and very exposed. In a castle that built around firearms it seems ridiculous