#embrasure

Introduction Turret (highlighted in red) attached to a tower on a baronial building in Scotland. In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded,…

Introduction An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out throughout the thickness of a wall by the establishment of a bay. This term designates the internal part of this space, relative to the closing…

noun

An opening in a thick wall for a door or window, especially one with sides angled so that the opening is larger on the inside of the wall than on the outside.

A flared opening for a gun in a wall or parapet.

An embrace.

In architecture, the enlargement of the aperture of a door or window on the inside of the wall, designed to give more room or admit more light, or to provide a wider range for ballistic arms.

In fortification, an opening in a wall or parapet through which guns are pointed and fired; the indent or crenelle of an embattlement.

A splay of a door or window.

An aperture with slant sides in a wall or parapet, through which cannon are pointed and discharged; a crenelle. See Illust. of Casemate.

View from the Bastion

Archers, crossbowmen and later, gunners, manned these embrasures, or openings in fortifications. These types of openings are flared inward. This one faces another fortification to create crossfire with a nearby tower making attacks on the city very difficult. Today one does not have to worry about attackers and instead enjoy the view of the Saint Dominic Church Tower and the Adriatic Sea.

Dubrovnik, Croatia