Hello Rafal,
Yes, there are numerous castles with swallow-tails merlons. In
addition, a number of castles have deteriorated or been rebuilt over the
years.
-----------------------------------------------------
Bellinzona, Switzerland:
Encyclopedia Britannica:
Spain:
Sforza:
Maltesta Fortress:
Regards,
Dana Scott
---- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 1:32
PM
Subject: VMs: swallow-tail merlons
revisited
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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