Barbicans are fortified outposts or gateways, typically forming the outer defence to a fortified city or castle, sometimes in the form of a tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. (The name comes from medieval Latin barbecana).

Usually barbicans were situated outside the main line of defences and connected to the city walls with a walled road called the neck. With improvements in artillery in the 15th century, barbicans lost their importance. A few barbicans were built in the 16th century.

The old Cite of Carcassonne possesses no fewer than four barbicans along with the ruins of a fifth. They are all different and give a good idea of the range of structures described as barbicans.

Barbican at the Narbonne Gate

The main entrance to Carcassonne was the Narbonne Gate, a substantial gate in the inner curtain wall. It was defended by a barbican, shown on the right, in the outer curtain wall. This is the inside of the semicircular defence, part of the Barbican at the Narbonne Gate at Carcassonne. This structure allows defenders to provide massive covering fire to the adjacent fortified drawbridge.

A Postern Gate at Carcassonne

Barbican at the Narbonne Gate, Carcassonne

 

 

Barbican at the Chateau Comptal at Carcassonne from the Cité

Carcassonne

Illustration of the Barbican at the chateau Comtale at Carcassonne, looking down from the cite side of the exterior of the chateau

Illustration of the Barbican at the chateau Comtale at Carcassonne, looking down from the direction of the chateau

Photograph of the Barbican at the chateau Comtale at Carcassonne, taken from the hourdes on top of the chateau wall

Photograph of the Barbican at the chateau Comtale at Carcassonne, taken from the dry moat just by the chateau wall (ie below the point of view of the photo on the left)

 

External view of the Barbican gate in front at the chateau Comtale at Carcassonne (a fortified gateway defending the barbican which is itself defending the cite entrance to the Chateau Comtale)

 

Barbican at the Aude Gate at Carcassonne

The Aude Gate at Carcassonne

 

Barbican below the Aude Gate at Carcassonne

Although Carcassonne was supplied by a number of wells inside the city, water could still be a problem - as the siege of the cite in 1209 was to prove. Carcassonne possessed an unusual external structure providing access to the river Aude and dominating the banks of the river. It is shown here in the right, drawn by Violette le Duc in the nineteenth century. The circular structure was removed and replaced by a church, but the walled walkway remains and is accessible to the public. (You can make out two other barbicans in this diagram, the Aude Gate and at the top the barbican of the Chateau Comtale within the cite.

Carcassonne