Constituent elements of the Kilia stone fortress

Abstract

Among the constituent elements of the Kilia stone fortress, which guarded the eponymous Danube portcity from the end of the XV century to the end of the XVIII century, there were the entrance gates (First Great Gates, Second Great Gates, Small Gates, Greek Gates, Guild Gates, Water Gates, etc.), the towers (Arsenal Tower, Agha Tower, Armory Tower, Commander Tower, Lighthouse Tower, Bloody Tower, Prison Tower, Tower of Gedik Akhmet Pasha, Maiden Tower, Moor Tower, Elephant Tower, Wool Tower, Mountain Tower, Millet Tower, Red Tower, Flat Tower, Cracked Tower, Biscuit Tower, etc.), courtyards (“civil courtyard”, “middle courtyard”, “garrison courtyard”, “commander courtyard” or “citadel courtyard”), curtains, artillery terraces, defensive ditches, as well as internal auxiliary buildings (residential houses, barracks, a cult object, a bathhouse, etc.). The gates were located in towers or stone curtains. The towers adjoined the walls (corner and intermediate) or advanced towards the enemy. Movable machicoulis or hoardings were used as vertical flanking elements. In the Kilia stone fortress there were hollow towers and “half-towers”. Depending on the shape of the plan, the towers could be square, rectangular, round, polygonal, D-shaped and with a complex plan ones.