A wicket gate, or simply a wicket, is a pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence.
A wicket gate, or simply a wicket, is a pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence.
Wickets are typically small, narrow doors either alongside or within a larger castle or city gate. The latter were often double gates, large and heavy, designed to allow the passage of wagons, coaches and horsemen. The purpose of wickets was to avoid the risk of having to open the main gates to the castle or city for just one or two individuals on foot. Because the wicket was only one person wide, it only allowed entry one at a time and enabled the guards to better control access. In the Middle Ages the narrow doors in the city walls also enabled late arrivals to gain entry after the main gates had been closed. [1]
If the small entrance in the door of a large gate has a high threshold, it may be called a manway. If it is a separate, narrow entrance next to the main gate, it may be called a pedestrian entrance. This type of double entrance is rather uncommon, however, and was only worth having at large sites where there was a lot of coming and going. [2] [3] It is found, for example, at the Alsatian castle of Hohlandsbourg, the Hochburg in Emmendingen, the Electoral Cologne castle of Friedestrom and at Schaunberg Castle in Austria. The narrow side entrance could be protected by its own drawbridge and sometimes even opened into a gate passage separated from the main one as, for example, at Hohenwang Castle. [4] [5]
The wickets in main gates that were easily visible should not be confused with the small, hidden sally ports in the walls of castles and fortifications. These small openings were used in times of siege to escape to carry out military raids. [6]
A wicket gate is also used for a stand-alone gate that provides convenient secondary access, for example to the rear of a walled park or garden. The cricket term "wicket" comes from this usage. [7]
"The Wicket Gate" is an important feature in John Bunyan's 17th-century Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress . As the first stage of the journey of Christian to the Celestial City, it is the entrance to the King's Highway. Bunyan's idea being to illustrate Jesus's dictum, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13–14).
Amlishagen Castle is a castle near the village of Amlishagen, which is a section of the town of Gerabronn, in the Schwäbisch Hall District of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Bezławki is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Reszel, within Kętrzyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of Reszel, 11 km (7 mi) south-west of Kętrzyn, and 58 km (36 mi) north-east of the regional capital Olsztyn.
Kiltsi is a small borough in Väike-Maarja Parish, Lääne-Viru County, in northeastern Estonia.
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German Höhenburg used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (Niederungsburgen).
Ruine Diepoldsburg is a ruined castle nearby the community of Lenningen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The term lowland castle or plains castle describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The classification is extensively used in Germany where about 34 percent of all castles are of the lowland type.
A ridge castle was a medieval fortification built on a ridge or the crest of mountain or hill chain. It was one of several types of hill castle.
A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the particular danger to the site from attacks on the castle from the rising ground above it, this weak point is usually strongly protected by a shield wall or a Bergfried. Often a combination of these two passive defensive works were used.
A shield wall, also shield-wall or Schildmauer, refers to the highest and strongest curtain wall, or tower of a castle that defends the only practicable line of approach to a castle built on a mountain, hill or headland. German sources may refer to a shield wall that protects two or more sides as a Hoher Mantel or Mantelmauer, which is variously translated as "mantle-wall", "mantle wall" or "high screen-wall". There is often no clear, definitive distinction between a shield wall and a mantle wall.
Liebenzell Castle is a hill castle on a sloping hill spur on the sides of the Schlossberg above the town of Bad Liebenzell in the district of Calw in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg. The fortification was once the most important castle in the Württemberg part of the Black Forest.
A neck ditch, sometimes called a throat ditch, is a dry moat that does not fully surround a castle, but only bars the side that is not protected by natural obstacles. It is often an important element in the defensive system of hill castles, especially in Germany and other parts of Central Europe.
Gutenburg Castle, is the ruin of a hill castle above the village of Gutenberg in the county of Bad Kreuznach in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary buildings used for the management of the castle or the supply of its occupants. These domestic buildings could include workshops, livestock stalls and stables; storage facilities such as barns, sheds and granaries, as well as quarters for servants such as maids, farm workers, and even the castle governors or castellans. In many cases there was also a brewery, a bakehouse and a kitchen, if the latter was not located in the hall or palas. An outer bailey was often called a base court in England. Depending on topography it could also be referred to as a lower bailey or lower ward, the keep being in the upper bailey or ward. Chepstow Castle has lower, middle and upper baileys.
The Frankenburg is a natural monument with the ruins of a rock castle in the county of Südliche Weinstraße in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies above the Modenbach valley on a rocky outcrop of the Frankenberg called the Frankenfelsen and was built to guard the road opposite Meistersel Castle.
A Zwinger is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. Zwingers were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence of castles and town walls. The term is German and usually left untranslated. However, it is sometimes rendered as "outer courtyard" presumably referring to the subsequent role of a Zwinger as a castle's defences became redundant and it was converted into a palace or schloss, however, this belies its original purpose as a form of killing ground for the defence. The word is linked with zwingen, "to force", perhaps because the Zwinger forced an enemy to negotiate it before assaulting the main defensive line. Essenwein states that the "main purpose of this feature was so that the besieging force could not reach the actual castle wall very easily with battering rams or belfries, but had to stop at the lower, outer wall; also that two ranks of archers, behind and above one another, could fire upon the approaching enemy"
A butter-churn tower is a two-part defensive tower in which the upper section has a smaller width than the lower section.
A Landesburg or landesherrliche Burg was a castle that a territorial lord, such as a prince-bishop, duke or prince built for the defence or expansion of his sovereign estates. They were thus the central and most important castles of the great princely territories. The Landesburgen were usually the property of the territorial lord, but they sometimes referred to castles that he did not own, but were available to him as a safe house (Offenhaus). The large castles of the 8th to 10th centuries, east of the Rhine and outside the towns were often described as Landesburgen because they performed important functions in the control of the state.
Zülpich Castle or the Electoral Cologne Sovereign Castle of Zülpich is the landmark and symbol of the town of Zülpich in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its origins may be traced to a Roman castrum. The present site was built in the late 14th century as a symbol of sovereignty and outpost of the archbishops of Cologne against the County of Jülich.
A chamber gate is a type of gateway system on medieval town fortifications and castles that comprises at least two successive gateways linked by an easily defended passageway between two walls. Chamber gates can be built in the space between two enceintes or built into an enceinte as an independent gateway. Because relatively few fortifications are surrounded by a complete second defensive wall, chamber gates are frequently found in short Zwinger sections.
The ruins of Liebeneck Castle were once a high mediaeval spur castle in the southwestern part of the Heckengäu, a forested region southeast of the village of Würm, in the county of Pforzheim in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg.