VMs: swallow-tail battlements

["Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

As I have now been able to see the castle (thanks to Petr Kazil),
I tried to look around for more info on the battlements etc.
It was funny that when I entered "battlements" and "swollow"
in Google, most of the top results where links to Monty Python's
_Holy Grail_ pages, with the dialog:

  -- Perhaps a swallow brought it.
  -- A European or an African swallow?

If Google is a modern I Ching, then this is its verdict
on the nature and origin of the VMS. :-)

But seriously... I have found the swallow-tail battlements in
the most unexpected place (well, I hinted at such origin once
or twice, and there is John Stojko's "translation"), namely
the Kremlin. Have a look, for example, at this picture:

  http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/russia/kremlin/spasskaya2.jpg

It should not be so strange, considering that the Kremlin
walls were built by Italian architects. Here is short
info from another Web page (and there are, obviously, plenty
of them about the Kremlin walls!).

      The walls of Kremlin, which you may see on the old engraving 
      were built by the order of Ivan the 3rd, the Grand Prince 
      of Moscow and All Russia, in 1485-1495, to replace 
      the white-stoned walls built by the order of Prince Dmitry 
      Donskoy. The red-brick walls were erected by Italian masters 
      Anton Fryazin, Mark Fryazin and Pietro Antonio Solario. 
      The towers built by the Italian masters didn't have tent 
      roofs, instead, they were crowned by the overhanging flat 
      roofs with special loop-holes. The towers, which look like 
      the Kremlin ones are found there in Italy, in Ravenna region, 
      while the specific merlons of "Dove tail" shape are typical 
      to the ancient Italian fortresses located in the vicinity 
      of Vinchenza, Milan and Verona. 

All of this just confirms my earlier opinion that any resemblance 
of the VMS features to the "humanist hand" or Italian architecture
of any type does not "prove" that it originated in Italy or even
that region. Italian scholars and artists of the 15th c. were
everywhere - especially in central and eastern Europe. 

Best regards,

Rafal