VMs: swallow-tail merlons revisited

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

Hi all,

I have just returned from a short vacation, touring the castles
in Silesia - and was quite amazed to find the swallow-tail merlons,
the subject of so much speculation on the list, in one of them.

It is the Bolków castle - see for example:

  http://www.zamkipolskie.com/bolk/bolk.html

and move down to see them very clearly in an old photograph.
I will post the pictures done by myself soon - and there are
also some more on the Web (eg.: http://www.sudety.it/galeria/1883.jpg ).
You may search for the above name or Bolkow, Bolkenhain or Bolkoburg.

There is also quite much here:

  http://zamki.res.pl/bolkow.htm

with one of the photos at the bottom showing the merlons very clearly.

The castle was rebuilt in mid-16th c. and presumably the merlons
were added then.

Oh, and I see there is a Wikipedia entry in German:

  http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolkenhain

The key conclusion/argument from this fact is that the swallow-tails
do not indicate the geographic region where the VMS was produced.
Bolków was in feudal dependence of the Kingdom of Bohemia
at that time - so there is no need to place it in Northern Italy.

About a year (?) ago I pointed out that the walls of the Kremlin
in Moscow have the same type of merlons - and now see that
the same are in Novgorod:

  http://www.novgorod.ru/eng/hist/archit/arc_03.htm

So - in my opinion - the merlons in the VMS prove nothing specific,
except for the ad quem (late Middle Ages or early Renaissance)
dating.

Best regards,

Rafal


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