Fortresses and siege weapons. Fortresses and siege weapons Cannon for shelling fortress walls crossword clue

Artillery is one of the three oldest branches of the military, the main striking force of the ground forces of modern armed forces, and it is not for nothing that artillerymen are called “gods of war.” In our review of the 10 most formidable artillery pieces ever created by man.

1. Atomic cannon 2B1 "Oka"

The Soviet atomic cannon 2B1 "Oka" was created in 1957. The chief designer of the project was B.I. Shavyrin. The gun fired mines of various types at a distance of 25-50 km, depending on the type of charge. The average mass of the fired mine was 67 kg. Gun caliber 450 mm.

2. Coastal gun 100-Ton Gun

The British 100-Ton Gun was used between 1877 and 1906. The caliber of the gun was 450 mm. The weight of the installation was 103 tons. It was intended to hit floating targets.

3. Railway howitzer BL 18

The BL 18 railway howitzer was built in Great Britain at the very end of the First World War. Its caliber was 457.2 mm. It was assumed that with the help of this weapon it would be possible to fire at the occupied territory of France.

4. Ship gun 40cm/45 Type 94

The Japanese 40cm/45 Type 94 naval gun appeared before the start of World War II. It is noteworthy that the actual caliber of the gun was 460 mm, and not 400 mm, as was indicated in all technical documentation. The gun could hit targets at a distance of up to 42 km.

5. Mons Meg

The Scottish siege gun Mons Meg had a caliber of 520 mm. This weapon was used from 1449 to 1680. The cannon fired stone, metal and stone-metal shells. This giant was intended to destroy fortress walls.

6. Karl-Gerät

If there was one thing the Germans excelled at, it was destruction. The Karl-Gerät super heavy mortar, better known as the "Thor", was used several times by the Wehrmacht in battles on the eastern front during World War II. Ultimately, the 600mm gun proved terribly impractical.

7. Schwerer Gustav & Dora

Another example of the creativity of Nazi military engineers. The Schwerer Gustav & Dora guns, each with a caliber of 800 mm, were so huge that they required two adjacent railroad tracks for installation.

8. Tsar Cannon

In the caliber race, the Russians beat the Germans in absentia. The well-known Tsar cannon has a caliber of 890 mm. The cannon was cast in 1586 and since then has always stood in Moscow. The weapon was never used in real combat, but it was created to the fullest extent of technology.

9. Little David gun

The 914mm Little David gun is a prime example of classic American defensive paranoia. It was created during the Second World War. It was planned that such guns would be installed on fortifications on the west coast in the event of an invasion by the Japanese Empire.

10. Mallet's Mortar

The British Mallet's Mortar gun was created in 1857 and had a caliber of 914 mm. The cannon is a mortar that was supposed to be used to destroy enemy fortifications. The engineers did not specify how exactly it was planned to move the 43 tons.

11. M65 Atomic Cannon

The M65 Atomic Cannon atomic cannon is not at all a record holder in caliber, because in its case it is only 280 mm. However, this example of American weapons creativity remains one of the most powerful artillery installations in the world. The cannon was supposed to fire 15-ton nuclear charges at a distance of 40 km. Unfortunately for her, rocketry changed the approach to artillery once and for all in the second half of the 20th century.

Today, combat vehicles demonstrate the highest technological level and have turned into real death machines, which can be called the most effective weapons of today.

In 1861, American engineer Robert Parker Parrott patented a new method for making gun barrels, which made them much lighter and stronger than the usual cast iron castings of that time. UnlikeThomas Rodman, who developed the complex cold-core casting method , the barrels of Parrott's guns were cast in the usual way, but at the same time they were much thinner and lighter than Rodman's. To increase strength, forged iron “cuffs” were placed on their breech, where the pressure of powder gases during firing is maximum, by hot-fitting, which protected the brittle cast iron from cracking.

In the same year, Parrott's guns were put into mass production at a number of arms factories and were widely used by both warring parties during the American Civil War. In total, several thousand of these guns were produced and were in service with the US Army and Navy until the end of the 1880s.

The calibers of the guns varied over a very wide range - from three to 10 inches (10 - 300 pounds in the then American system of determining caliber by the mass of the projectile). Light three-inch field guns weighed 400 kg and fired at 4,600 meters, while heavy siege and ten-inch ship guns weighed more than 12 tons and threw 140-kilogram shells eight kilometers.

Parrott's guns were produced not only in the north, but also in the southern states. The southerners made small-caliber guns without any problems, but difficulties arose with larger ones due to the lack of powerful forging equipment for making forged iron rings of considerable thickness and large diameter, necessary for such guns. Solving this problem, naval officer and inventor John Mercer Brooke proposed making the “cuffs” composite, making them from narrow rings, or putting relatively thin tubes on top of each other.

Brooke's guns were successfully tested and produced during the Civil War at the Richmond Ironworks and at the Selma Naval Arsenal. However, the production capacity of these enterprises was relatively small, so in three years they produced no more than a hundred rifled guns with a caliber of six, seven and eight inches, as well as 12 smooth-bore ten-inch guns and several 11-inch guns.

The production culture was also not up to par, which is why there was a high percentage of defects. For example, out of 54 Brooke seven-inch guns made in Selma, only 39 successfully passed tests, and out of 27 six-inch guns - 15. Nevertheless, Brooke guns were considered a very valuable weapon and were used at the most critical sites. In particular, two such guns were installed on the first battleship of the Southerners, Virginia. The battleships Atlanta, Columbia, Jackson and some other ships of the Confederate fleet received two more guns.

The screensaver shows Brooke's gun from the battleship Jackson in the American Naval Museum.

Loading Parrott's 300-pounder gun. To lift the projectile, a folding block in a rope loop attached to the barrel is used.

Parrott's 20-pounder gun on the deck of the sloop Constellation.

On the left is the muzzle of a Parrott gun with factory markings. The rifling is clearly visible in the bore. On the right is a patent drawing of Parrott's high-explosive fragmentation projectile with a leading copper "skirt" that expanded when fired and ensured the movement of the projectile along the rifling.

An unexploded Parrott shell found in Civil War battlefields.

American reenactors in Confederate uniform demonstrate shooting with a Parrott 10-pounder field rifle.

Parrott's gun on the deck of the Northern steam-sailing frigate Wabash.

A coastal battery of northerners, on which Rodman’s smoothbore 15-inch “bottle” and Parrott’s rifled 10-inch “bottle” flaunt side by side.

Parrott's battery of 30-pound long guns that bombarded Confederate Fort Pulaski on April 10-11, 1862. As a result of the shelling, the fort suffered significant damage, and almost all of its guns were disabled. Two days after the bombardment began, the fort's garrison capitulated.
This combat episode clearly demonstrated the ineffectiveness of fortifications built to withstand “nuclear” guns against rifled artillery.

Damage to Fort Pulaski as a result of shelling. The thick brick walls of the casemates were broken through in many places.

Due to casting defects not discovered in a timely manner, Parrot's cannons sometimes exploded when fired, like this 10-inch siege gun. According to official data from the US Navy, of the 703 guns of this design that were installed on warships and coastal batteries during the Civil War, 21 exploded. On average, there was one accident per 500-600 shots.The statistics were approximately the same in the army artillery.

This is called "bombanulo"! Parrott's eight-inch gun, the breech of which was knocked out when fired.

Drawing of a Brook cannon with two thin rings placed on top of each other.

Brook's eight-inch gun is in a coastal position. Taking a closer look, you can see that the outer shell of the barrel is made up of three rings adjacent to each other.

Brooke's smoothbore ten-inch gun, captured by the Unionists in Richmond after the surrender of the Southerners.

Bruck's guns, preserved to this day.

FORTRESSES AND SIEGE WEAPONS

In the 1240s. in Southwestern Rus', to protect the approaches to the gates, multi-tiered stone towers up to 30 m high were built. These towers were erected in such a way that their defenders could shoot at the enemies, even if they managed to capture the rest of the fortress. In fact, these towers served one purpose: shooting at the enemy from a long distance. Similar towers were erected in Western Rus' in the 2nd half of the 13th century; 15 such towers are mentioned, although their true number seems to have been much higher, even in the Volyn principality alone. Similar structures were erected in villages and temporarily captured cities, presumably to repel raids by Mongol troops. They turned out to be so effective as “fire bases” that in the middle. XIV century began to appear in the principalities of Northern Rus'.

Completely stone fortresses appeared later, although already in 1259 Prince Daniil Romanovich built his new capital city of Kholm from this material.

In the XIII–XVI centuries. Russian princes waged wars mainly with the goal of seizing foreign territory, so fortifications acquired particular strategic importance. In one in three of the 460 military campaigns fought between 1228 and 1462, the Russians either besieged or defended cities. During the Mongol period, various methods of defending territory were used depending on local conditions; This was also reflected in the use of fortifications. In the years following the invasion of Batu Khan's troops, Tatar troops avoided the use of bulky and heavy transport and siege weapons and rarely attacked cities. If the detachments were small in number, they were content with plundering the rural outskirts, but if their numbers were sufficient, they could try to take the fortress by cunning or defeat its garrison in open battle.

On the northwestern and western borders of the Russian lands, where the Teutonic knights and Lithuanians actively used siege technology when storming cities, the situation was the opposite. From the end of the 13th century. Here, special attention was paid to the construction of fortifications and the creation of numerous stone-throwing machines. Following the strengthening of the capital cities in 1302–1309. the inhabitants of Pskov and Novgorod built many fortresses, especially along the borders. As wooden and earthen fortifications became obsolete, they were replaced by more reliable stone structures. In strategically vulnerable regions, new fortress cities were created, such as Koporye, Korela, Oreshek, Izborsk, Yam (Yama) and Porkhov.

Between 1382 and 1426 During the siege and defense of fortresses, the Russians began to use firearms along with existing siege engines. Fortress walls and towers were built so that their defenders could freely shoot from arquebuses, bows and crossbows, but only in the second quarter of the 15th century. the use of firearms led to real changes in military architecture. This first manifested itself in 1430, when the walls of the fortified city of Porkhov were thickened, followed by the reconstruction of Yamgorod in 1448.

The eastern wall with a peal and the corner tower of the Koporye fortress, built in the middle of the 15th century. (Photo by V.V. Kostochkina)

In the 2nd half. In the 15th century, which coincided with the formation of the Moscow state, artillery became so powerful that cannons could now break stone walls. For the first time in Russian history this happened in 1481 during the siege of the German fortress Fellin in Livonia. The next stage in the development of Russian military architecture was the construction of a strictly quadrangular fortress in Ivangorod in 1492 - the first such structure in Rus'. But since the Russians followed Western European models in the construction of fortresses, the Ivangorod fortress without corner towers already at the time of construction was an outdated design even for that time. This architectural flaw became fully apparent when Swedish troops easily captured the new fortress just 4 years after its construction. After this, Ivangorod was re-fortified and modernized in order to fully comply with modern requirements for warfare, when the siege of fortresses was entirely entrusted to artillery.

Painted wooden figurine of St. George the Victorious, Russia, 15th century. (Museum of Local Lore, Yuryev-Polsky)

In subsequent years, there was an intensive development of military architecture in Rus', especially in the south of the country, as a result of which it became one of the most developed countries in Europe in this regard. It is not for nothing that these changes are occurring at a time when the Russian principalities are uniting into a single state. They also clearly indicate that the outcome of military operations is now determined not so much in battles in open space, but in sieges and the defense of cities.

Wooden fortifications

Original Russian fortifications reached the pinnacle of development in the 16th–17th centuries. The size and shape of Russian cities were determined, of course, by walls, towers, church buildings and the general terrain. Until the 13th century. any populated place protected by a fence was called a “city,” but other special names gradually began to appear. These included: tyn, meaning a fence or palisade, gorodnya, taras, fort, meaning special types of wooden structures.

Tyn, or palisade, was the simplest and oldest type of wooden fortification. It consisted of a ditch and a rampart, which could reach a considerable height. To strengthen the palisade, logs were used, the pointed ends of which protruded outward from the wall - they were called “needles.” Polati, or platforms, were built on the inside of each wooden wall. Such walls, where palisades and similar connecting structures were combined, were much stronger.

In the fort, pointed logs were inclined inward, presenting a smooth and difficult surface to climb, and the wall was supported by a low earthen embankment and special internal trestles, or scaffolding, built close to the wall. The most obvious advantage of such wooden fortifications was the speed and simplicity of their construction. A significant drawback was that the lower ends of the logs quickly rotted.

The same thing happened with frame structures called city, gorodnya or taras, which are stronger and more complex types of wooden fortifications. Their walls are usually twice as high as those of a simple tyn or palisade, and their thickness is usually equal to the height of the latter. In fact, the city, gorodnya or taras appeared in response to the emergence of firearms, especially cannons. All of these designs are slightly different from each other. Tarasy consists of two parallel walls with an impressive opening between them; these walls are connected at certain intervals by means of crossbars. Some of the resulting niches were filled with cobblestones, but other, wider niches were left empty and used as defensive positions by members of the garrison. Each of these niches usually had two loopholes and a door.

The gorodnya consisted of separate frame structures closely attached to each other. One of the disadvantages of such a structure was that the structures began to quickly rot at the joints, and the walls began to become loose. In addition, their construction required much more time and building materials. Additional loopholes were also cut into such walls.

Rohatina of Prince Boris Alexandrovich, Russia, ca. 1450. The sleeve is decorated with an artistic engraving of an archer (below). (State Armory Chamber, Moscow)

(1) Battle axes found during excavations in Ipatievsky Lane in Moscow in 1969. (2, 2a) Battle axes from Novgorod, XIV–XV centuries.

(3) Battle ax from Vladimir, XIV–XV centuries.

(4) Battle ax from Novgorod, XIV–XV centuries.

(5) Axe, XIV–XV centuries.

Until the 13th century. Towers were not erected inside such fortifications; they appeared along with firearms. In medieval Russian fortresses, wooden towers of many varieties were erected, depending on their purpose and design. The main ones were: vezha, arrow, bonfire and pillar, and the word “tower” itself came into use only in the 16th century.

Similar structures included a corner tower with a gate, a round tower, a quadrangular tower, a two-tier tower, a blind tower in the center of the wall, and others. Such towers differed in shape, purpose, number of tiers and wood from which they were built.

The number of towers and their size depended on the size of the fortress and its position. If the latter was based on the terrain, then round towers were usually built. If the fortress had a geometrically correct shape, quadrangular towers were built, which were more easily connected by walls and provided a wider angle of fire.

The towers were also used for storing supplies, for housing, and as churches and chapels. Almost every large fortress had a hanging chapel above the main gate - it was not only more convenient to defend the gate from it, but it itself served as a defender of the most vulnerable part of the fortress structure. The largest towers were equipped with sentry boxes with a window on each of the four sides, as well as galleries surrounded by railings, from which the surrounding area was clearly visible.

Fortress structures were usually divided into two groups. The first included defensive systems that were directly included as components in the main defensive structure, such as oblasts (see below), loopholes, and the like. The second group included additional structures, such as embankments, ditches, etc., which were usually used to fence cities and prisons.

An oblam was another type of wooden structure built over the lower part of a wall or tower, although sometimes the lower part of the frame wall itself could be called an oblam. On the towers, the oblast was usually built over its lower part along the entire circumference, while on the walls there were oblasts only on the outside. The loopholes had the shape of small windows through which the defenders could fire; their sizes depended on the type of weapon used. However, they were usually about 8-10 cm wide. On the outside, their lower and side edges were made beveled, which provided a larger firing angle. When guns began to be used through them, these embrasures naturally became wider and sometimes reached 30–40 cm.

(1) Saber from Kuban, XIV century. (State Historical Museum, Moscow)

(2) Sword from Ridoml (Volyn), XIV - early. XV centuries (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)

(3) Sword from Vodichka (Khmelnitsky region), XIV–XV centuries. (Historical Museum, Kamenets-Podolsky)

(4) Sword from Kyiv, XTV–XVee. (location unknown)

(5) Sword from Sebezh, 15th century. (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)

(6) The so-called “Dovmon’s sword”, ser. XIII century (Historical Museum, Pskov)

(7) The so-called “sword of Vsevolod Mstislavich”. (Historical Museum, Pskov)

(8) Method of attaching the scabbard

During the VIII–X centuries. An integral part of the fortifications were deep ditches with steep edges, but starting from the 10th century. and then greater importance began to be given to earthen embankments, which eventually began to reach a height of 10–16 m.

The richly decorated “sword of Vsevolod Mstislavich” was made for a Russian prince in Central Europe, possibly in the late 18th century. XIV century

(A and B) Two sides of the pommel

(C and D) Two sides of the cross

(E, F) Outer sides of scabbard frame

(G) Tip

One of the best preserved medieval sabers, discovered during excavations near the city of Nizhyn; dates back to the 12th–13th centuries. The Arabic script and the inscription on the saber indicate its eastern origin. (State Historical Museum, Chernigov)

At the end of the 15th century. the entire northern part of Eastern Europe, right up to the Arctic Circle, became part of the Russian state.

The devastating raids of northern tribes on the cities and villages of Pomerania forced the Russians to build fortresses even in this distant land. In addition to large fortifications, monasteries, small forts and churchyards, or administrative units, were built here in considerable numbers - all of them together formed a powerful layered defense system along the banks of the northern rivers.

Knives. Some still have wooden handles and decorated leather sheaths. Novgorod. XII–XV centuries (Kremlin Museum, Novgorod)

The fort on Kola was first mentioned in the 13th century; since then it served as the northernmost strategically important outpost of Rus', and its fortifications were rebuilt several times. But even in this case, the walls of the fortress continued to be built from wood until the 18th century, using, as a rule, such wooden structures as gorodni and taras. Empty niches were formed in the walls of such fortifications, which were intended for storing food and other supplies, the same thing was done in Siberian fortresses. At the same time, most of the towers in these northern lands were built in the shape of an irregular hexagon with double outer walls.

The second most strategically important of the northern fortified outposts was Ustyug. It first appears on the map of Rus' in the middle of the 12th century, and by the 17th century. is already a large fortress, consisting of two parts, known as the Settlement and the Great Ostrog. This fortress had 24 towers and walls made of sharpened logs, with internal defensive galleries; Ustyug was protected from attack from the northeast by a wide ditch 3.5 m deep.

Another characteristic feature of fortifications in the Russian North was that many fortresses with internal stone walls had external walls made of wood. An example of such a fortress-city is Novgorod. To speed up construction, standard blanks were used, and in most Russian cities there were markets where ready-made elements for the construction of fortifications were sold. An example of a city built using standard billet technology is Polotsk.

Fortresses in Southern Rus' were built on the most vulnerable sections of the border, where over time continuous lines of defensive structures arose. In the XIV–XV centuries. Russian exploration of Siberia began. Here, small forts were built to protect the newly acquired lands and repel enemy raids. The number of such forts, as well as settlements, or fortified winter camps, was constantly increasing. In the 18th century they turned into military or administrative and commercial centers.

Among all types of fortifications, the most widespread in Siberia were forts, the simplest of which were ordinary camps surrounded by a palisade of logs. Subsequently, wooden towers were added to many of them.

Russian pernachs from Pronsk, Sakhnovka, Khmelnya and Zvenigorod: (1–3, For) XIII century; (4–5) XIV century.

Siege weapons

The first attempts by Russians to use siege weapons date back to the campaign against Byzantium in 968–971, after which for several centuries this type of military equipment was not mentioned in Russian chronicles. However, in 1237–1240. The Mongols, when taking more than ten large Russian cities, used siege engines of Chinese or Central Asian origin, known as vices. Without a doubt, thanks to the Mongol conquerors in the second half of the 13th century. These weapons became so widespread in Rus' and became indispensable both during siege and defense of city walls. For example, in the chronicles of Southwestern Rus' they are mentioned under 1245 and 1260, and in Northern Russia - under 1268 and 1301. In the XIV century. stone-throwing machines were in service with the troops and were stored in the military arsenals of the largest Russian cities; in Moscow there were such machines in 1382. In the 14th century. The use of stone-throwing weapons reached its highest point; they continued to be used for many years along with artillery pieces. However, during the first decades of the 15th century. vices appear less and less under the walls of besieged cities, and by 1450 they are completely forgotten.

Donors in the temple. The men are dressed in the rich clothes of late medieval Rus', as is the woman standing on the right.

Crossbow and archery arrowheads found in Novgorod. (Museum of the Novgorod Kremlin, Novgorod)

The power of throwing machines could increase in proportion to the increase in their size, as well as by strengthening the throwing element through the tight connection of several elastic wooden trunks. According to the most reliable evidence, the stone throwing machine could reach a height of 8 m, weigh 5 tons and throw stones weighing 60 kg or more. The largest machines of this type required from 50 to 250 people to operate.

The disadvantage of such machines was their fragility, therefore, in order for them to remain suitable for serious operations, they had to be constantly updated and repaired. Special specialists - vicious craftsmen - supervised their assembly; To build a stone-throwing machine, the master had to have sufficient knowledge of mathematics necessary for accurate calculations. Moreover, he had to know special artillery commands, as well as be able to maintain the vehicle in good technical condition. Such machines were built, repaired and maintained in the capitals of many principalities, which required a large number of qualified specialists.

Various types of stone-throwing machines were used in Rus', and over time, more and more efficient and accurate throwing weapons appeared here. These included trebuchets - stone throwers with a movable counterweight, which became very popular. However, despite their increasing power and accuracy, stone-throwing machines proved powerless against stone fortifications and were supplanted by much more effective firearms.

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No, we are not talking about the Inquisition. Six or seven centuries ago, the towers of the fortresses of northwestern Rus' - Novgorod and Pskov - were called bonfires. Well, the vices are the siege stone throwers of that time: trebuchets and ballistae. What did their confrontation look like at that time? We decided to show this using the example of Izborsk, one of the most famous Pskov fortresses

Sergey Sysoev

The loopholes of medieval fortresses sometimes seem to be located haphazardly, but in reality the architects did not allow any accidents in this most important issue. Firing sectors were assigned based on the requirements of the terrain and the capabilities of the weapon; both are now not always easy to establish. If necessary, the loophole could be oriented not directly, but in the direction necessary for defense. The photo shows the embrasure of the Nikolskaya Tower of the Porkhov Fortress (Novgorod Republic, 1387). If you look closely, you can see that she is “looking” to the side.

Talavskaya Tower, view from the inside. You can see the characteristic shape of the loopholes with chamber-pechurs, characteristic of the fortifications of the “gun era”. Pechurs provided enough space to place guns. In some places this design appears even before guns, but it has become ubiquitous since the end of the 14th century.

A wall with a secret Even well-studied fortresses like Izborsk have their mysteries. One of them is a plantar battle loophole located in the western wall of the fortress. Judging by the shape, size and location at ground level, there should have been a cannon here. However, before us is a wall from 1330 - the first mention of artillery in Russian chronicles is still half a century away. The loophole cannot be a later construction - it is built on the outside with a butt from the end of the 14th century, built to increase the thickness of the wall, just in view of the appearance of cannons.

Moscow, as you know, stands on seven hills at the same time. Since its foundation, Izborsk happened to stand on two hills in succession. Initially, the fortress was located on a hill near Lake Gorodishchenskoe, now known as Truvorovo fortification - in honor of the legendary (most likely fictional) brother Rurik. It is with him that the first chronicle mention of Izborsk is connected in 862: Truvor “sat” here to reign. Its location on a hill, bounded by steep slopes, made it possible to storm the fortress from only one side, which was called the approaching side. The other walls of the fortress were, as you might guess, impregnable, since they were beyond the reach of the then siege equipment: stone throwers did not have enough range, and it was impossible to drag the ram up the slope. Cape architecture prevailed in Russia until the middle of the 15th century and sank into oblivion with the development of siege artillery: the relief details did not interfere with a cannonball.

Excavations at the end of the 20th century showed, however, that a fortified settlement existed at least from the beginning of the 8th century, being one of the Krivichi tribal centers. Around the 11th century, the fortress became a stone one, with a three-meter thick wall, two gates and a watchtower on the point of the cape - on the side opposite the approach. Nevertheless, already in the first half of the 13th century, the then Izborsk was taken by the Germans twice: in 1233 and 1240. By that time, the hill had also become cramped: the area of the fort on it was only about 1000 m². But the conclusions came only 60 years later. In 1303, a new, then still wooden, fortress was built on Zheravya (Crane) Mountain, 1.5 km southeast of the previous one. Another 27 years later, a team of city planners sent from Pskov, led by mayor Sheloga, replaced the wooden wall with a stone one.

No towers

Towers with tents and crenellated parapets reaching menacingly towards the sky seem to be an integral part of medieval fortress architecture. But they only seem to. Fortifiers of the Early Middle Ages often did without them - with one wall with a military passage at the top. The level of siege equipment then allowed the garrison to behave rather passively, limiting itself to frontal shelling of the enemy storming the wall. A sufficient condition for success was to prevent the enemy from reaching the wall, regardless of the damage inflicted on him.

This fully applies to Rus': wooden fortresses of the pre-Mongol era usually had only a gate tower to protect the entrance, not oriented towards the flanking fire along the wall. Stone fortresses followed this tradition - however, there were few of them then.

Let's pay attention to the shape of the wall in plan: in some places it is curved, in the western section it is strongly curved. Since flanking fire was not expected during its construction, mayor Sheloga had no need to demand straight lines from the architects. They placed the wall based on the relief - a typical decision of that era. Straight spindles and towers on the corners would become an indispensable attribute of fortifications in one and a half hundred years - with the advent of the firearms age.

In Izborsk in 1303, there was apparently one tower - Lukovka, or Kukovka - located, like in its predecessor city, on the arrow of the cape. Her appointment has been the subject of controversy for many years. Fortresses with one tower were a fairly common occurrence in those centuries, but a tower was often erected in a threatened area in order to have a better view of the battlefield and the ability to fire at the enemy from above. The onion stands in the most protected place of the fortress, too far from the approach wall and gates for the attackers to be reached with a bow or crossbow. Perhaps what we have in front of us is a donjon - the last refuge of the defenders in case the enemy breaks into the fortress, but such structures are not very typical for Rus'. In addition, if Lukovka now stands inside the fortress (the wall of 1330 went around it, obscuring part of the loopholes of the lower tier), then in the “wooden period” it was clearly included in the wall. This is evidenced by the exits laid in ancient times, through which it was once possible to get from the wall to the tower and vice versa. It is possible that the main function of Lukovka was a lookout: it still has an observation deck, but again it is strange that the observation post is not located where one can expect an assault. By the end of the 14th century, the “lookouts” were located on the Vyshka tower, built by that time, at the western end of the fortress, which looks much more rational. But we will talk about the Tower and other towers below.

The role of the staircase in history

You won’t immediately notice this sign of antiquity, and once you notice it, you won’t immediately understand what this heap of stone was like six centuries ago. And in front of us, it turns out, is a staircase leading to the fortress wall. The structure, completely ordinary in any modern (and even then) house, is not very typical for a fortress: after all, steps can help not only defenders climb the wall, but also attackers who occupied the wall or part of it to go down.

In fortresses of later eras, communication between the wall and the surface was maintained only through towers. By the end of the 15th century, the “standard” became a tower that opened the battle passage, so that it was possible to move from one section of the wall to another only through the tower, the entrances to which were blocked if necessary. In Ivangorod (1492), the city planners went even further: there the entrance to the tower tier is separated from the wall by a drawbridge, and an enemy who breaks into the wall has every chance of staying there. But Izborsk never had such wisdom - its walls were built in the “crazy era”, and the stone staircase remained from that time. It may well be that she was not alone at one time.

Log in and die

The gates have always been considered the weakest point of the fortress. Indeed, what could be simpler - knock down the door and enter? The defenders of the “door” were, understandably, not happy with this turn of events. They tried to complicate the lives of their opponents and, as much as possible, shorten them while they were rushing to visit. To make this procedure long and replete with unobvious meanings, in many fortresses of the 13th-15th centuries. Ekov's entrance architecture was a little more complicated. The adversaries who passed the first gate had to then go through the zahab (sometimes called the sleeve) - a corridor between two walls, usually blocked from above and shot through by hospitable hosts from all sides. To add to the fun, the zahabs were sometimes made curved, covered with lowering gratings, and in general the set of surprises prepared for the guests was limited only by the imagination of the owners. The prize for the survivors was the opportunity to take out one more, last, gate. Behind them, dear guests could finally grab bread and salt directly from the owners, but, as far as we know, no one did this.

The Izborsk fortress has two zahabs - Nikolsky and Talavsky; the second of them, much smaller in size, was obviously a backup to the main one. Only ruins remain of both. As the medieval city lost its military significance, the extra walls at the entrance turned from a survival factor into an obstacle to passage and passage. They were not taken care of too much, and the scale of the structure contributed to destruction: the external walls of the zhabs in Izborsk were only about a meter thick - and this is perhaps the only thing that is reliably known about their structure. Most historians suggest that six centuries ago the zahab was blocked from above, and the outer wall was not only thinner, but also lower, so that the defenders of the fortress could fire at the enemy over it - but these assumptions are now impossible to verify.

Bonfires on the hill

Formidable fortress towers appeared near the walls of Izborsk in the second half of the 14th century - about half a century after the walls themselves. Izborsk is no exception in this sense - from about this time, towers became an integral element of fortress architecture throughout Rus'. Obviously, the reason was the development of siege technology, which made the traditional passive “sitting” behind the walls a futile activity. To repel a well-equipped enemy, it was necessary to dominate the battlefield, and for this the riflemen needed better positions.

The rapid development of firearms also played a role. At the end of the 14th century, it was not yet an effective siege weapon - low power and difficulties in transportation affected it, but it was already widely used to protect fortresses, and this required equipped positions and good sectors of fire. The significant role of cannons is also indicated by the strengthening of fortress walls: at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. Ekov, the thickness of the masonry was increased and reached 4.5-5 m against the original 2-2.5. Western and southern walls of Izborsk

even strengthened twice, becoming three-layered, the least dangerous northern one - once. Similar work was then carried out on most of the most important fortresses of Novgorod and Pskov.

There were six towers built at the end of the 14th century, one of them, covering the middle part of the Nikolsky Zahab, has not survived to this day. Four towers are concentrated on the approach side of the fortress and are strongly pushed forward, adjoining the wall only with their back side. The loopholes on the tiers are located mainly in a checkerboard pattern, allowing you to shoot both along the wall and at the front. Unlike Lukovka, which was originally designed for all-round defense, later towers do not have loopholes facing the inside of the fortress. The entrance to the towers was located at the back.

We would like to separately mention the only sole combat loophole in the fortress, built directly in the wall on the approach side of the fortress. In subsequent eras, this detail will become widespread, but for the XIV-XV centuries. ekov was a rarity.

Water problem

Zheravya Mountain is not only quite high, but also made of limestone. On the one hand, this circumstance once made life easier for mayor Sheloga and his people - the fortress stands on natural stone as a foundation. On the other hand, it is difficult to cut a deep enough well in a limestone massif. We have also never heard of drilling wells in the 14th century. Meanwhile, there must be water in the fortress, otherwise the besiegers will not need to storm it.

The problem was solved by constructing a secret passage from the foot of the southern wall down to the base of the hill. A trench with fortified walls was dug into the hillside, running down from the Bell Tower to a spring at the foot of the hill. Then the passage was covered with a vault, covered with turf and camouflaged. The enemy (Germans) managed to find it only once, in 1341, but the fortress was not taken and then the besieged started a rumor that they still had plenty of water, and this trick worked. It may seem strange that the cache was not discovered in subsequent sieges, but in those days there were no GPS navigators and databases, and the archives were arranged in an extremely simple manner - apparently, valuable information was simply forgotten.

Machicoulis (French machicoulis, from the medieval French mache-col, “to hit the head”) - hinged loopholes located in the upper part of fortress walls and towers, intended mainly for vertical shelling of the enemy storming the walls with arrows or handguns, throwing stones , pouring boiling water and resin.

In Russian serf architecture, the following terms were used: “oblique battle loopholes”, “mounted battle”, “mounted archers”, “varnitsa” and, accordingly, “brew battle” (from var, boiled resin, boiling water).

The occasional use of machicolations is known in the ancient world (nuraghi of Sardinia, fortresses of Central Asia). But everywhere they entered into fortress architecture in the Middle Ages: in Europe, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. In Western Europe, developed stone machicolations were also preceded by a kind of machicolli - loopholes with an inclined floor, which, however, did not allow shelling at the very foot of the walls.

Therefore, wooden galleries - gourdizia or chords with hinged loopholes - were built only for the duration of the siege in front of the parapet (sometimes on both sides of it) walls or towers. At the same time, the inclined loopholes of the parapet itself did not overlap and could also be used. Gurdicia were built in the 12th-13th centuries. They were often combined with stone machicolations, which began to be built after the Crusades and in the 14th century. replacing gourdizia.

In Rus', for shelling the base of wooden fortresses, there were long slits under the outward protruding upper combat platform or parapet - fence (zaboral, oblam).