Chemin de ronde

A chemin de ronde (French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; French pronunciation: [ʃəmɛ̃ də ʁɔ̃d]), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement.¹²

In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficult to defend from the ground. The chemin de ronde was devised as a walkway allowing defenders to patrol the tops of ramparts, protected from the outside by the battlements or a parapet, placing them in an advantageous position for shooting or dropping.

References

Philippe Contamine (1986). War in the Middle Ages. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-631-14469-4.
J. E. Kaufmann; H. W. Kaufmann; Robert M. Jurga (2004). The medieval fortress: castles, forts and walled cities of the Middle Ages. Da Capo Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-306-81358-0.

External links

Media related to Chemins de ronde at Wikimedia Commons

[Contamine1986-1] Philippe Contamine (1986). War in the Middle Ages. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-631-14469-4.

[KaufmannKaufmann2004-2] J. E. Kaufmann; H. W. Kaufmann; Robert M. Jurga (2004). The medieval fortress: castles, forts and walled cities of the Middle Ages. Da Capo Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-306-81358-0.

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